Well, we all made it back safe and sound from a longer than usual week in Manchester (at least it seemed longer). Here is a little report on how the trip went:

 

Friday September 5th

Arrived in Manchester after a pretty nice flight and a few hours of sleep.

 

The first day is generally spent getting the bikes set up, then a trip to Piccadilly Center, so that you don't have a chance to take a nap and mess up your attempt to change your sleep patterns, this is what we did.

 

Mark Pelletier and I took a taxi to the Velodrome from the airport. After setting up the bikes, getting a half hour spin in and marking our territory at the track, we went to check in at our rooms. Dick Keller of the Midwest Masters Team from Wisconsin met us and chauffeured us around for the week. He rented a car and took care of most of our transportation needs. We took our traditional trip to Piccadilly Center and had a nice lunch at Pasta Italia.  This is a good Italian restaurant we eat at several times during the week.  After a walk around downtown we headed back to our rooms.

 

Now, the trick is to stay up to 8pm before passing out for the night, we did just that. After dinner and a pint of Boddingtons we hit the sack.

 

Saturday September 6th

I slept like a baby and woke up in a haze wanting more sleep. We had breakfast at our hotel and took it easy, as we had a private workout session booked for 2:30. We met Butch and Rich Gangl at the track for our workout.  Things felt pretty good and we were in good spirits with high hope of placing well. After the workout we went back to Pasta Italia for lunch and some looking around downtown.

 

Sunday September 7th

After a restless sleep thinking about the next days Time Trails we had an early breakfast and relaxed for the morning. Jan Lischer arrived in the morning and met us at the track. Dick Keller had the first sessions 500 and placed third. Mark, Butch and I had our Time Trails in the evening session.

Warm-ups felt good and I was the first to go. I had a decent run but nothing spectacular. I placed 4th just out of the medals. Then Mark went and had a pretty good ride finishing a half second faster than last year, and moved up 2 places for a 7th place finish. Butch rode a good Kilometer and placed 8th.  It was frustrating for Butch as only a half second separated him from a third place medal.

 

Monday September 8th

A long day of racing for Dick Keller as he sprinted to a fourth place finish. Jan Lischer rode her first event (500 TT) riding very well and finishing on the podium with a bronze medal. Way to go Jan!!

 

Tuesday September 9th

Today was Sprint day for Mark, Butch and I. Mark and I rode very mediocre 200's and Butch rode a pretty good one. Mark raced brilliantly and aggressively making it through round one only to lose round two and the rep round in two well-ridden and very close races.

Butch sprinted better than I have every seen. He was aggressive and strong. He won his opening round and round two to qualify for the semi finals in the evening. The semi final was close but Butch ended up in the minor final for fourth through sixth. With a lap to go he overlapped wheels and went down hard. His head hit the track and cracked his helmet. It's a good thing he hit his head and not his shoulder so that he could do the re-ride. The only problem was finding a helmet big enough to fit that big "Huscat" head of his. After considerable searching, we did find one and he was able to re-ride, finishing sixth.

My sprints were tough from the first to the last. I made the semifinals only to be beaten and finished a disappointing fifth in the minor final.

 

Wednesday September 10th

Rich Gangl had his Pursuit today. He finished ninth in the qualification round just 5 seconds from qualifying for the medal round.

 

Thursday September 11th

It felt strange waking up in England on the second anniversary of Sept 11th.  We tried watching some of the news on TV at breakfast. It was still midnight back in the States so there was no news on any of the events or the commemoration of the event yet.

Jan had her Pursuit Qualifier today and rode very well. She did qualify for the medal round in fourth place, only .7 of a second from the first place finisher. In the evening ride for third place Jan was in the lead until two laps to go and finished forth.

 

Friday September 12th

This was an off day for all of us. We took a train to the town of Chester, which is just south of Liverpool and 2 miles from the Wales border. It was a beautiful day and we had a very good time. We stopped for lunch at a little restaurant named "Duttons", I got the Bangers and Mash. What made this meal special is that the mashed potatoes were "Bubble and Squeak" mashed potatoes. This meant they were made with cabbage.  They were very tasty washed down with a pint of Guinness!!

 

Saturday September 13th

Jan headed home today and Mark, Butch and I prepared for the team sprint. We had high expectations of medalling. In the qualifying round we needed to place at least fourth in order to ride again in the medal round. We placed 5th just .2 of a second out of fourth.

After we went out for a nice dinner in Chinatown, Chocolate Crash cake at the restaurant next to our rooms and a pint of Boddingtons we packed up and got ready for the trip home.

 

Sunday September 14th

The longest day!! We woke up at 6:30am (only 11:30pm the night before in Denver) and had breakfast and headed to the airport. It wouldn't be until 20 hours later that we would see the sun go down behind the Rocky Mountains.

 

It is great to be back home!!!!

 

 

Rich