Race Recap: LAVRA Cup #1

I had a great time on Saturday watching the first round of the LAVRA Cup at the Home Depot Center Velodrome. Since I couldn’t race, I went there with Beaver Beavs just to hang out and spectate. We had a whole crew cheering from the stands. Plus a bunch of homies were racing including Zachary Scott (below in the VCR kit) who came down from SF and Tim McGee (in the Predator kit).

It was a very long day of racing with seven different fields each contesting an Omnium — that’s 21 races in total, not including the Match Sprints. There were a lot of riders on deck in each field. The Men’s Cat 4/5 field was at capacity and that’s always awesome to watch.

There were many notable performances. The Cat 1/2 field was fast and furious but former British Olympian Shaun Wallace is amazing, always kicking it into high gear just in time to take the finish. Aram Goganian was able to outsmart and outpower San Diego’s young talent Simon Ferguson in an epic Match Sprint tournament. Meanwhile, our pal Christopher Reed earned himself a new nickname for his intense race face: “Sabretooth” (in the PAA/Remax kit below).

Aside from watching the races, it’s always fun just to walk around and drool over all the pretty bicycles. We spotted Robert Smith’s glorious 3Rensho track bike (below) on the way to the snack machines and just had to take a minute to admire it. Robert has owned this bike since he got it new in the early 80’s and yes he’s still racing it!

Overall a great day of racing. Next time (March 5th) I’m hoping to be on track but it’s definitely fun to be a spectator once in a while. Many thanks to Beaver for rollin’ out with me and taking all the rad photos!

Results will be posted here when they become available.

2010 LAVRA Cup Standings …So Far

The sixth and final LAVRA Cup race is this Saturday at LA Velodrome. The whole series has been great fun to watch with cameos from big racers such as Rahsaan Bahati, Tara Whitten and Justin Williams (who will be appearing again this Saturday). However, it’s the regular LAVRA cast members who will be eligible for the Cup series awards.

The series is tallied by the sum of each racer’s best 4 (out of 6) omnium scores. Like most local track leagues, omnium points are awarded by how the racers position in each race. First place gets 7 points and there are 3 races held on each race day so the most anyone can get in one race day is 21 points. If you’re confused by all this, try coming down to a track meet and it might become clearer!

To be eligible for the LAVRA Cup, competitors have to attend at least 4 of the 6 races in the series. This means that anyone in the running for this year’s LAVRA Cup has already attended at least 3 race days.


[Photo by Pat Benson.]

The Masters 45+ and 55+ categories have already been clinched by John Walsh and Keith Ketterer respectively. The real competition is going to be in the Cat 1/2/3 field between Ketterer and Walsh (both Amgen-UBS teammates). Of course it’s still anyone’s game. With riders like Justin Williams showing up to race tomorrow, some of those omnium points might have to be shared with non-Cup competitors.

It’s definitely gonna be an exciting race day to watch. Races start in about 23 hours. Be there!

LAVRA Cup Standings
Cat 1/2/3	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	OVERALL
1. John Walsh	0	0	-	17	0		17
2. Keith Ketterer	0	0	0	8	7		15
3. Tony Canevari	0	0	0	10	-		10
4. John Allen	0	7	0	-	0		7
5. Jack Lindquist	-	0	0	2	2		4
6. Chris Lindensmith	0	2	-	0	-		2
7. John Rondash	0	-	0	1	-		1
8. Aram Goganian	-	1	0	-	0		1
Masters 45+	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	OVERALL
1. John Walsh	17	21	17	7	19		74
2. John Rondash	17	-	10	13	-		40
3. Scott Lelieur	2	13	10	11	3		37
4. Keith Ketterer	0	5	0	10	-		15
5. Mark Neumann	2	-	0	4	8		14
6. Tom Buescher	-	1	4	0	4		9
7. Reggie Jones	0	0	0	-	2		2
8. Gavin Scholle	0	1	0	-	-		1
9. Bret Sehorn	0	0	0	0	0		0
Masters 55+	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	OVERALL
1. Keith Ketterer	21	21	21	17	-		80
2. Lionel Space	8	-	15	-	21		44
3. Eguege Poyrena	8	-	7	15	-		30

LAVRA Cup Racing This Saturday

[Photo from last month’s LAVRA Cup by Pat Benson]

The fifth installment of the 2010 LAVRA Cup will be contested at LA Velodrome this Saturday. Overall results from the series so far are posted here.

There are only two more race days left in the series so be there and see some very fast racing. Races start at 3pm. More info here.

Races At LA Velodrome This Saturday

2010 LAVRA Cup #3 - April 3rd - 3:00pm

After the UCLA Road Race, come see some track racing at LA Velodrome/Home Depot Center.