Collegiate Track Nationals

September 18-20, 2003

Upon returning from a busy army summer the team learned of a new opportunity....track nationals. None of the six man team that eventually made the journey to Indiana had ever been on a track bike before. After a few short lessons from Coach Bastianelli, and two weekends spent competing at the track in Trexler Town, PA, team army was off to nationals on a most interesting hodgepodge of track bikes. There were bikes that had recently been converted from track to road bikes, there were bikes that were older than the riders. The best two bikes to be had, however, came curiosly from Ted Blyth who "accidentally" ordered two new track bikes, and just had to keep both. The members that would eventually make the trek to the Major Taylor Velodrome in Indianapolis, Indiana included John Turbeville, Ted Blyth, Tim Holland, Charn McAllister, Laura McGinnis, and Michelle Arnold.

At track nationals there are 4 individual event which each person can compete in, but each rider can only participate in 3 of these events. In addition to these events, there are three team events to compete in. On the women's side of the house there is the Olympic sprint, which is a 3 lap time trial generally composed of 3 riders, each of whome lead one lap. In Army's case, however, there were only 2 female riders, so Michelle had to lead two laps. Even at this deficit, the ladies' team was able to place 3rd in this event. The next team event involves only the men's portion of the team. These fellas complete a 4 km time trial, taking turns leading every half-lap. The final team event is probably the most unique. In this event, both the men and the women compete together. Starting with the women, each rider completes one lap in the lead to complete this 3km time trial. In this event team Army received a 4th place finish. For the overall results please see below and for more information please check out the following web site:

Men's Kilo

Men's 200

Men's 3000

Men's Team Pursuit

Italian Pursuit

Women's 500

Women's 2000

Women's 200

Women's Points Race

Women's Olympic Sprint