Hammer named USOC female Athlete of the Month PHOTO: Doug Thralls

The U.S. Olympic Committee announced track cyclist Sarah Hammer as its December Athletes of the Month,

Hammer not only collected gold and silver medals at the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Cali, Colombia, in December, but the two-time World champion clocked the third-fastest women’s time in history in the three-kilometer individual pursuit. The Olympian made her return to the highest level of competition by taking the individual pursuit gold in the UCI Track Cycling World Cup’s third round before joining with Dotsie Bausch and Lauren Tamayo to take the silver medal in the team pursuit.

Hammer stated, “It’s always an honor to win recognition from the United States Olympic Committee as there are so many great American athletes. My new training environment at the UCI World Cycling Center has proven to be a great fit for my performance and I feel like I am right on-track for a great performance in 2012.”

I just received an email from Dr. Brent Kay, Sarah’s sponsor.

Sarah wins three golds just as she is on the cover of ROAD. Coincidence? I don’t think so…

It was quite the busy week. There were the three days of track racing at the ADT velodrome and I had to continue training for my upcoming camp visits. You ask, “Why do you need to train when you visit these camps?” The reason is simple, number seven on the list of seven sins – pride. Usually journalists and guests are allowed to ride along with the pros during the camp. These are usually long enough for the pros to get in a bit of actual training, but not ‘on the rivet’ causing certain death and destruction for VIPs. In the magazine realm, I can hold my own among most journalists, but to be honest, that’s not saying much. Sure there are a few ‘ringers’ like the guys who just graduated and had been racing every weekend. Wait till they get older and settle into the grind. Then we’ll see who is still training! Anyways, I just don’t want to be that guy who gets dropped an hour into the ride. I want to be the guy that the director is thinking, “Hey, we should sign that Neil guy.” As a result of my growing hubris, I’ve been logging some solid rides on the weekends. The weekend before I rode with my BFF, Cush. He works for Bicycling and apparently has all the time in the world to train between ‘How to make your abs flat in three weeks’ and ‘Climb like Armstrong’ articles. He dragged me around Orange County for four and a half hours. Then during the week I’ve been doing short, hard intervals to bring my AT up to a decent level. Yesterday, Saturday, I rode with my favorite metrosexual hairdresser, Slover and the rest of his crew in the hills of Malibu. About ten miles into the ride one of the group gets a puncture. As we are standing on the side of PCH, who do I see approaching us but David Zabriskie. He stops and we chat for a few minutes as we wait for ‘Un-Loyal’ who punctured. Dave is down in SoCal to avoid the cold Utah weather and log some solid training miles. Also, Dave and his wife, along with Floyd Landis, attended the velodrome the night before in support of Sarah Hammer. I also suspect he is looking for some of my riding mojo. Our plan was to climb into the surrounding hills of Malibu, but that wasn’t on Dave’s list of things to do, so we waved adieu when our group turned onto Latigo Canyon. He was headed to Starbucks to see how many shot of espresso he could down.

Slover – keeping it real

Sunday at the velodrome was fabulous! Sarah took her third gold medal and she’s on the cover of ROAD. Yeah, I’m a Hammer groupie…We’re working on the next issue of ROAD and you can see a complete run down on the three days at the track.

Sarah taking her third gold in the scratch

After jumping back into my Scion, Tim and I blasted down the freeway to rendezvous with Floyd Landis again. As mentioned in my previous blog, we had been at the ADT Velodrome that morning to watch Dr Kay attempt the Master’s Hour Record as well as see David Zabriskie go for either the American Hour Record or the Eddy Merckx Hour Record, there was a little confusion about which he was supposed to be going for. Dave had just returned from CSC training/boot camp in South Africa which included deep sea diving and having to catch all their own food as none had been provided. Then to top it off it was 30 hours of traveling to get back to the States. Not ideal Hour Record preparation.

The David Witt Memorial Cycling Classic at the San Diego Velodrome was a chance to raise money for the California Fire Foundation and the honored riders were, of course, Floyd and Dave. Against my better judgment, Dave has grown the beard back. Shaving is probably not a major concern when you have to catch your own food. Hell, I barely shave and all I do is throw my food in a microwave, let alone try and catch something to eat, so I guess I shouldn’t talk. Floyd and Dave raced each other twice in a three lap match sprint. Landis was on his road bike and Zabriskie with his time trial machine. In the first race, Dave hit the brakes forcing both of them into a track stand. I don’t think Floyd saw that coming. The first race Floyd won by jumping onto the track apron and the second sprint Dave, looking for revenge, took with a blistering sprint from the front position. This was a low-key event with spectators coming into the infield and talking to both riders and grabbing precious autographs. The day ended with jerseys being auctioned.

Dave leading out the sprint for the win

While this was going on Tim, John Seguesta our photographer, and myself were strategizing. I had a conceptual idea of what I wanted the photo shoot to look like, but pulling it off is another thing. The planets must have been aligned yesterday because other than lawyers, all of the key people in Floyd’s life were on hand. The plan was John would shoot some action shots and then he and Tim would go back to John’s photo studio, which was a mile away, and prepare for the shoot. John asked me if he should get anything. “A 12-pack of beer!” I’ve done a few photo shoots and they always go a little easier if you have some alcohol, food and music playing. You almost have to turn the shoot into a mini party. Now the tough part, gather all of Floyd’s friends, coaches, and doctors and convince them to come to the studio for the shoot. Sure they all wanted to do it, but now it was getting late in the day and I knew people were getting hungry for dinner. I kept telling them it wouldn’t take long and before you know it you’d all be at dinner. We rolled out of the velodrome with I think five cars in tow for a total of 16 or so people. When we arrived, John, was a little taken back. He didn’t, as did I, think that we had so many people with us. Not only did we have Floyd’s friends (Allen Lim, Robbie Ventura, Dr. Kay, Dr. Baker, David Z, Bob Roll, Landis’ good friends with their significant others) but Sarah Hammer and her coach who we needed to shoot as well. I quickly passed out beers and tried to organize our mini party. We decided to shoot Floyd’s group first, then individual photos and final individual photos of Sarah Hammer to accompany an upcoming interview. But like a party, people were talking, drinking or just sitting and relaxing. At one point, sitting down with a beer in his hand, Floyd said he was having a good time. We did get them organized for the shoot. I’ve seen some of the rough pre-production shots and they look good!

Tim and I finally wrapped up the night at Hawthorn, a restaurant owned by Floyd’s mother-in-law. What a classy place! The restaurant is in a theatre, with the lobby the dining area. Tim and I had gotten there after we looked at some of the photos, so Floyd’s group was already seated. We pulled up a couple of chairs at the end of the table and decompressed. The expression, you are known by the company you keep, seemed very appropriate as I looked at the folks at the table. It could have been very easy for anyone there to say, “No I don’t want to go to the photo shoot” or just be a pain in the ass about it. But instead, when I asked each person if they’d like to do the shoot, no one hesitated and all said they would do it. They all crammed into cars and followed us over to the studio and made it happen. I like to think, when it is all said and done and we shuffle off this mortal coil, that is how we will be remembered. Not by the amount of bike races won, dollars earned, or how many expensive cars we have in our garage, but instead by how we treated our friends and family. In that regard Floyd Landis has nothing to worry about. No sanctioning body can take away the genuine love and respect that people showed to Floyd that day.

John is either directing Floyd or attempting a Vulcan mind meld

The new Oakley glasses?

The Uni-Bomber beard is back

]]> http://neilbrowne.com/2006/12/the-david-witt-memorial-cycling-classic/feed/ 1 http://neilbrowne.com/2006/12/the-david-witt-memorial-holiday-cycling-classic/ http://neilbrowne.com/2006/12/the-david-witt-memorial-holiday-cycling-classic/#comments Tue, 05 Dec 2006 17:56:00 +0000 Neil http://neilbrowne.com/2006/12/the-david-witt-memorial-holiday-cycling-classic/

Floyd Landis is donating his time for a charitable cause. The first annual David Witt Memorial Holiday Cycling Classic December 17th at the San Diego Velodrome is to raise money to support the families of USFS Engine Crew 57 firefighters that gave their lives fighting the Esperanza fire. Floyd will be joined by Dave Zabriskie, Sarah Hammer, Robbie Ventura, Bob Roll, Dr. Allen Lim, Dr. Arnie Baker. The main event is a ride featuring these cycling celebrities. There will also be a fundraising auction of jerseys. The event runs from 1:00 to 4:00. I highly recommend that you contribute to this very worthy cause and get down to San Diego to see these cycling champions first hand.

For more information about the David Witt Memorial Holiday Cycling Classic and on how to donate, please visit www.sdvelodrome.com.

Donate directly to the Esperanza Firefighters Fund;

http://www.cpf.org/default/working_for_you/esperanza_firefighter_fund/index.cfm

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