FasCat Athlete Joseph Santaniello who hails from Tjorne, Norway recently attended the 2010 UCI Track Cycling Masters World Championships in Portugal. He was kind enough to send us a report and some great photos.
Check out the big time wattage & speed Joseph was putting out during his preparation! With good communication & power data we t are able to operate as a global company. OK, a small global company. Power data makes coaching around the world possible because we can see every pedal stroke of every ride in the data. Add in frequent & effective communication thru email & Skype and poof, results like this are possible:
Masters’ World Track Championships in Anadia Portugal was a lot of fun! Portugal is really nice, and the people were great.
I had been planning on going since I found out the event would be held in Europe after several years in Australia. And it didn’t take much to convince Petter and Calle to come along too!
We got in late Sunday night and met some South Africans at the hotel who had been there a while and they said the track was quite nice, and that got us even more excited. The guy we spoke to was who I ended up riding against in the 3000m Pursuit qualifier.
Joseph’s Custom Made Viking Cycle
The next morning we went down to the track for registration and to test the track at the time alloted to our age group. With 250+ riders spread over 8 age groups for both men and women, this required a bit of coordination. Registration went quickly and soon we had our bikes assembled and headed out on the track. We were early so we got in a fair bit of riding before it got too crowded. We don’t have that much experience with lots of riders on the track, so for us it was a bit disconcerting. Nothing compared to later in the week when they bagged the age-group restrictions and a few times I saw upwards of 90 riders on the track at once…
Joseph Warming Up and Ready to Go
The next day was the Time Trial: 750m for ages 40-49, 500m for older riders. Older riders first, so we got a chance to study how the logistics worked of when to get ready, where to go, etc. Each participant country was assigned a pit area, with smaller countries sharing space with neighboring countries. We were with Denmark, Finland, and Ireland. Next to us was Russia who had a larger group and their own pit, and across the aisle was the South American contingent with Argentina, Paraguay, Colombia, Brazil, Puerto Rico, etc. Australia, USA, France, and Great Britain each had their own huge area, Italy too. The rest were spread around like us.
Early in the day there were some technical problems with one of the starting gates and more than a few times it failed to open properly and and more than a few riders were hung up and/or fell launching themselves out. Happily I noted on the start list that I would be starting on the side with the fully functional gate. For TT events, 2 riders go at once, one on each side of the track to move things along quicker. I had a nice warm-up on the rollers I borrowed from Marius. Over the next few days, several riders borrowed the rollers, including 2 soon-to-be World Champs. Maybe those are lucky rollers. I hope Marius lets me borrow them again! I managed to stay calm, but excited. My hands were shaking, but I wasn’t nervous. Just right. When it was nearing my turn, one of the UCI reps came and got me, and I went up to the gate. The head commissaire who was French made some jokes about my shiny skinsuit, and it matched my frame of mind perfectly. I had been determined to be ready for anything, so no unexpected event would disturb or irritate me and keep me from concentrating on the race. I set my left pedal to 10 o’clock and gave the bike to the guy. Calmly watched as they mounted it into the gate, and waited for the signal to get on. Walked relaxed around the top side, stepped on the mounting plate and got on my bike no problems. To everyone manages that with pre-race nerves. They looked at me, and commanded a big fat guy to stand on the gate supports to keep it from moving from my mass. That got a smile out of me. Countdown from 50 seconds. Beep. 20. Beep. 10. Beep. 5… beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, BOOP! YEAARGGGHHH! I launched weight forward, and gave a monster gorilla stomp with straight arms deadlift style, opening up the hip angle, driving forward. Again, again, again, already feeling the G’s in the turn, yelling “2000 Watts, Baby!” in my head, out of the turn, bending elbows a bit to get lower concentrating on leg speed. Trying to spin up as fast a possible. Goal is 60 km/h, 150 rpm. This track has long wide turns, and short straights. So I was already into the next turn before I was ready speed-wise to sit, so I stayed standing a bit in the turn. With the G’s, that is very hard, and I’m sure is what kept the day’s times 1-2 seconds away from records. I sat, and got low while trying to accelerate more through the turn. Out of the turn I quickly got into the aerobars, and continued to spin. Concentrate on holding the black line, and keeping on the gas. No problems. Thinking, “faster, faster, faster!” the whole time, before I knew it the bell was ringing for last lap, and I still felt good. I felt my legs starting to stop up a bit in the last half, but not too bad. Crossed the line in 54.6 seconds, good for 24th place 4.1 seconds back. I wanted 53.x but I’m happy with the effort. Petter and Calle each put in good rides too.
Points Race Champions
The next day was Pursuit. Not many ride the sprints and Pursuit, so my main goal was to not be last. At Euro champs in Manchester I rode 3km in 3:54 using a 51×14, and in Poland last time I experimented with a huge gear which slowed me to 4:04 or something. “Everyone” was telling me the gear I used in Manchester was too big, and that I should use a smaller gear. I shouldn’t have listened, but I did. I rode 48×14 for 4:00. The Brits said this track was 3 seconds slower than Manchester, but I was looking for an overall improvement. If I had run 51×14 I’m sure I would have been faster. Anyway, I wasn’t last! I was a whole two tenths out 
Thursday was Team Sprint which disappointingly we could not ride because the combined age needs to be at least 135, and we are only 120. And unlike Euro Champs, composite teams from nations without enough eligible riders is not allowed. Both an American team and a South African team asked the organizers if i could ride with them, but no go. Team Sprint is an awesome event. I hope I get to do it next time.
Friday was the day I had been waiting for. 200m qualifiers and first sprint rounds. During some of the open sessions I had managed a few flying 200 approaches and felt I had a pretty good handle on the line, and how the turn felt at speed. I wasn’t afraid, and I felt I would be able to keep it low in the turn and not go wide. The older riders went first, and I was reminded that this is a World Championship event. Some of these guys are mind-bogglingly fast. Only the best 24 in my age group would qualify to ride the first round, but I was pretty sure I wouldn’t have a problem with that. I had been thinking about gear for a long time, but had decided what I was going to use, and on purpose left the others back at the hotel so I wouldn’t be temped to switch at the last minute. I rode 51×15. Lately on the road I have been using 53×16 which is a little lighter. I knew I should use bigger on the track, but was afraid to take too big a jump from what I had been using in training. I should have used bigger When it was my turn, the guy checking us in, commented that I had the biggest shoes he’d ever seen. That’s right! All the better for transfer of big power! Out in the first lap I cork-screwed my way up the track to save energy. I was a bit fast early and felt it in my legs before i should have, but kept on the steam. Down the hill on the back straight I gassed it and kept the pressure on up the hill into the turn, staying close to the rail. Eased on the juice, and at half-way through the turn, stood and dropped the hammer. Focusing on leg speed, spinning it up, aiming for the line I think is fastest. Across the finishline, I sat as the turn started, trying to spin it up more. Across the start line, I felt crazy G’s which made me happy, and did a good job of keeping it low. But I was too far forward and slipped off the nose of the saddle a bit, and had to shove myself back up onto the seat once on the back straight. That must have cost something. I kept on the steam all the way and it felt like I didn’t lose any speed from there on in. New PB time of 12.1. Improvement of .3. To put that in perspective, that’s like a 25 second improvement on a 10 km ITT. And now I’m sure that if my seat was more forward, and I’d run a 49×14 I would have ridden 11.8 or faster.
Anyway, I qualified and was matched against the 4th best best qualifier who rode 11.4. Even considering that my 200m time maybe doesn’t accurately reflect my speed due to imperfect execution, 11.4 to 12.1 (or even my wishful-thinking 11.8!) is a big gap. So I knew I would have no chance of coming around him, and I’d have to control the race and make him have to come around me, and maybe just maybe I’d be able to hold him off. I drew the outside lane. My plan was to take the lane at the first oppurtunity, and to stay in the lane so as not to risk having him beat me to it underneath. If he went high, I was going to stay in the lane, and just speed up to increase the gap and negate his height advantage. And since I think I have better acceleration than top speed, if he came low, I’d just match speed and keep him on my hip. At the whistle, he lead slowly and I crept in behind him, still on the banking. My wide shoe hit the track, and I decided to ride down onto the apron. On the back straight, still quite slow he climbed to mid-track. I went up a tad higher, and as he turned his head to the right to watch me, I jumped left 3 strokes and grabbed the lane, then slowed. He had jumped when he saw me, but eased when I did. He then went high as we entered the turn. When I saw that I sped up and opened a gap. He dove (I was watching over my shoulder the whole time), and I dropped the hammer to make sure he wouldn’t come around immediately. When I saw he was down in the lane behind me, I slowed, and watched. He went high again, and I sped up again. As he dove for a second time I gave it all I had, as the bell rung. It became a drag-race with me leading and him on my hip with 200 to go. Out onto the back straight and he pulled ahead. I just didn’t have enough speed. He got in front of me before the final turn and that was that. If I had a bigger gear I maybe could have held him off through the last turn, but probably not. He would have come around eventually. I also maybe would have qualified better and not met this guy who ended up getting silver in an awesome final the next day. I was happy with how I rode my race, and made no mistakes. I was just too slow. So that was the last of my racing since it was the first round, but I watched a huge number of matches and really learned a lot. I can’t wait until next time! After the race he came over to say hi, and let me know I rode a good tactical race. He also noted that we have the same birthday: May 6, 1970. I suspect that’s not the last I’ll be seeing of him!
2011 Euro Champs are in Italy, and Worlds in Manchester. I’ll be looking to ride 52.x for the 750, and 11.5 for the 200. Light Weights!
Photos and Videos
Results
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Joseph
Thanks Joseph! and congrats on an incredible season! and we look forward to helping meet and exceed your goals for 2011!
