Women try out team pursuit at US Track Nationals

Only six weeks before making its debut on the UCI World Cup program in Sydney, Australia, the women's three kilometer team pursuit event was introduced to the US national track championships.

Two-time world individual pursuit champion Sarah Hammer, newly crowned national pursuit champion Dotsie Bausch, and national sprint champion Jennie Reed are not part of any long-standing pursuit team. Bausch is still in her first year on the track and Reed, although she started as a pursuit rider, has made her mark more as a sprinter.

That is why they called their team "2 Queens & a Fred" for the race Saturday, the last day of nationals competition in Carson, California. And in the final two laps, the lack of specific pursuit laps together showed, but it did not matter, as the three easily beat the best time for the win with a time of 3 minutes, 34.783 seconds.

"We are all training partners, not really for pursuit, but it's great to race with your friends," said Hammer. The final few laps saw Bausch leaving a bit of a gap when she swung off her pulls, and in the final two Reed filled the gap by taking extra pulls along with Hammer. "It just happened to be a good gap for a bike so it went really smoothly," said Reed. There was a bit of confusion among team members, but they pulled it off.

"It was the first time so there are going to be bumps in the road," said Hammer. Reed also chimed in on this sentiment. "That was our first standing start together!"

Second place went to South Bay Wheelman (Becky Quinn, Christen King, and Neva Day) in 3 minutes and 43.841 seconds. Five teams contested the inaugural event.