Higgins, O'Reilly add to medal tallies

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The 2009 USA Cycling Elite Track National Championships concluded at the Home Depot Center velodrome on Sunday awarding national titles in the men’s and women’s team sprint and the men’s Madison. Nearly two dozen women also contested the inaugural women’s Madison, an exhibition event for 2009.

In the men’s Madison, Cody O’Reilly (Santa Barbara, Calif./Bissell) and Iggy Silva (San Diego, Calif./Iggy Racing) lapped the field inside the final few laps to beat Black Dog’s Ryan Luttrell (Colorado Springs, Colo./Black Dog Pro Cycling) and Ryan Sagba (Denver, Colo./Black Dog Pro Cycling), 8-4.

The pairing of Shane Kline (Bally, Pa./Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Bobby Lea (Mertztown, Pa./OUCH p/b Maxxis) scored 25 points, but finished a lap down to place third. For O’Reilly the race wrapped up a successful week after winning the omnium and placing third in the points race, and for Silva the Stars-and Stripes marked his first as an elite.

“I went over to Hasselt last February with USA Cycling’s development program and did some Madison racing,” explained the 19-year-old Silva. “The competition over there is a lot better, so it really prepared me for this race. Julian (Kyer), Cody and myself are headed back over in a few weeks as well. Madison racing has a lot going on and is very exciting so it’s one of my favorite events on either the road or the track.”

In the team sprint events, the Landrover squad of Lanell Rockmore (Bethlehem, Pa./Team Alliance), Dean Tracy (Colorado Springs, Colo./land Rover-Orbea) and Kevin Mansker (Portland, Ore.) rode to a national title in the men’s contest while the Proman squad of Cari Higgins (Boulder, Colo./Proman Hit Squad) and Anna Lang (La Jolla, Calif./B&L Bike & Sport) won the women’s event.

Rockmore, Dean and Mansker clocked a winning time of 48.023 seconds to beat the Momentum trio of Kelyn Akuna (Elk Grove, Calif./Veritas Cycling Team), Steven Beardsley (Portland, Ore./Gentle Lovers) and Daniel Walker (Houston, Texas/Momentum Coaching Group), who clocked a time of 48.497 seconds, by a narrow margin of less than half a second.

In the head-to-head bronze medal match, the Affinity Cycling team of Andrew LaCorte (Plainview, N.Y./Affinity Cycles), Dan Sullivan (Bloomfield, N.J./Team Metra-Wendy’s) and David Espinoza (Breinigsville, Pa./Bike America) turned in a 48.627 to place third over LTO Velo’s Peter Billington (San Rafael, Calif./LTO Velo), Sam Milroy (Palo Alto, Calif./LTO Velo) and Rey Giovanni (Los Gatos, Calif./LTO Velo) whose 48.801 left them in fourth place overall of the 12 teams who took the start.

For the women, Higgins and Lang beat Jen Featheringhill (Portland, Ore./Bike Central) and sprint champion Cristin Walker (Houston, Texas/Momentum Coaching Group) in the gold medal final with a winning time of 37 seconds flat. For Higgins it was her third straight team sprint title.

“The team sprint is always on the last day and we’re all really tired, so it’s kind of like icing on the cake,” explained Higgins. “Today we’re all so excited about being able to participate in the first-ever domestic women’s Madison. The Madison is becoming an international event so it’s great that the U.S. is keeping pace. We even have a field of 10 teams which is great for the first time.”

In the bronze-medal match of the women’s team sprint, Home Depot’s Dana Feiss (Telford, Pa./Home Depot Center) and Cj Boyenger (Orange, Calif./Team Hammer Nutrition) clocked a 37.757 to edge Amelia Bjesse-Puffin (Portand, Ore./Brian’s House of Pain) and Andrea Fisk (Portland, Ore./Velo Bella) of the ATRH squad by a mere tenth of a second.

Despite being an exhibition-only event, the women’s Madison was undoubtedly the highlight of the final day of competition at the 2009 USA Cycling Elite Track National Championships. A total of 10 squads, including several powerhouse teams, lined up for the start of the first-ever event. It was the Vanderkitten team of Lang and Jennifer Reither (Chatsworth, Calif./Vanderkitten) however that stole the show, sneaking around to lap the field and grab the win. The victory gave Lang her unofficial second title of the day.

The Vanderkitten pair scored 10 points to the Proman squad of Christen King (Huntington Beach, Calif./Proman) and Higgins’ 20, but the extra lap earned them the victory. Tomassini’s Catherine Fiedler-Cook (Long Beach, Calif./Tomassini) and Cassandra Hollman (Paramount, Calif./Tomassini) also earned 10 sprint points to finish third.