Phinney and Hammer take individual pursuit titles

The 2009 USA Cycling Elite Track National Championships continued at the Home Depot Center velodrome on Friday with both Taylor Phinney (Trek-Livestrong) and Sarah Hammer (American Track Foundation) catching their opponents in their respective men's and women's individual pursuit finals to add to their collection of national titles. Kristin Walker (Momentum Coaching) also grabbed her second Stars-and-Stripes of the competition in the women's Kierin and Olympian Adam Duvendeck (Momentum Coaching) won his first elite national sprint title.

Phinney clocked a time of 4:30.855 seconds in the qualifying round of the 4000-meter individual pursuit before catching Roman Kilun (OUCH p/b Maxxis) in the gold medal final to win his third consecutive elite title in that event. The 2008 Olympian was able to catch Harm in 7.5-laps of what was to be a 16-lap lap affair.

"This event is so tough," explained Phinney. "It's a rewarding event, but you really have to work at it. It's exciting to see so many young guys like Julian doing well."

Daniel Harm (Broadmark Capital City) took third ahead of last year's bronze medallist Julian Kyer (Trek-Livestrong) in the race for third and fourth.

In the women's 3000-meter individual pursuit, former world champion Sarah Hammer (American Track Foundation) took her ninth national title, as she caught training partner Dotsie Bausch (ATF-Empower Coaching) after the same number of laps as Phinney caught his competitor. Also going head-to-head with Bausch in the qualifier, Hammer posted a Home Depot Center Velodrome record with a time of 3:31.831, with her second lap split even faster than Phinney's.

In the race for the bronze medal, Heather Jackson (California) defeated 2008 pursuit national champion Kimberly Geist (Team Alliance Environmental).

Five hundred meter time trial champion Cristin Walker (Momentum Coaching) took her second title of these national championships winning the women's Keirin in a photo finish over Dana Feiss (Home Depot Center). The pair met in a packed final that included former collegiate national champion Anna Lang (B&L Bike & Sport) and 2008 national champion and 2009 omnium winner Cari Higgins (Proman Hit Squad).

In the match sprint final, a pair of Olympians: Adam Duvendeck (Momentum Coaching) and Giddeon Massie (Bike Religion) split a pair of rides before Duvendeck was awarded the national title as Massie was relegated after a crash in the final round. Duvendeck recovered from the crash to collect his first elite national title in the sprint. Daniel Walker (Momentum Coaching) took two out of three from Kevin Mansker (Oregon) to win the bronze medal as well as the Under-23 national title.

"You never want to win like that," stated Duvendeck. "I really felt good going into that round. It was a good hole and it just got closed up on me. I feel pretty confident about the racing today. This is some of the best competition we've had in years with several guys posting sub-11 second times in the 200. It really bodes well for the future of American track cycling."

Competition will continue on Saturday with the points race, men's Keirin and the women's sprint events.