Race Report - Madison, 1996 Olympic Trials (June 10, 1996)

Tonight the Carneys won the national madison championship 
in a rain-shortened race.  They opened by winning the first
four sprints, and from my vantage point in the rear of the
field they seemed to be unbeatable.  Well, almost unbeatable.
With a few laps to go before the double points sprint I 
attacked over the top just before they exchanged.  I got
a little gap which got substantially bigger when Jonas'
chain came off when he started chasing.  I threw in my 
teammate, MaNe Rodriguez, and he held off a hard-charging
JaMe Carney to take the double points - and hand the Carneys
their first defeat in a madison sprint.  It was cool.  We
were cool.  I attacked as soon as I got thrown back in, 
then blew up and we lost a lap to the field.  That wasn't 
so cool.  The ony other team to beat the Carneys in a sprint
was the Olympic Club (Nick Kelez and Mike Tillman).  We 
relished that thought but simultaneously felt like tools for
losing a lap.

However, our evening only got better from there.  After the
race we decided to eat at the Starlite diner (and lounge)
near the velodrome.  It was your basic 24-hour joint with a 
bar in the back room with some 40-ish ladies chain-smoking
and gossiping, oblivious to the fact that Greg and Kathy 
LeMond were partying in the corner with some people I don't
know.  MaNe had just finished casing the joint and was about
to bail when he had the sighting, and within 90 seconds we
were all settled in at one of the tables drinking our beers.
Eventually they got up to leave, but stopped to talk to us
on their way out.  Greg was pretty boozed.  He asked us what
kind of bikes we were riding.  I got an enthusiastic handshake
when I told him I was riding a LeMond.  Kevin Metcalfe had it
a lot better, though.  Greg touched Kevin a lot.  Afterward,
Kev was recounting all the places Greg had touched him while
babbling about all the new Bruegger's bagel stores he was 
opening.  I was busy watching Star Trek:  The Next Generation
on the TV screen at the time, but it sure sounded like Greg
touched Kev quite a bit.  "He touched me", Kev repeated several
times in a Butthead-esque tone.  We were all impressed but 
also wondered about Kev a bit.  MaNe said Greg ony touched his
leg or something.  Again, I was watching the complex play of
emotions on Commander Riker's face at the time, so I didn't 
see for myself.  All in all, it was a pretty successful trip -
a 'good ride' from Eddie B., meeting Mark Gorski, taking a 
sprint from the Carneys, shaking hands with Greg LeMond.  I 
just hope Kev recovers from being so starstruck.  I feel kind
of bad because I'm going to break his course record at 
Sierraville next weekend, and Kev's got to be dreading that.

*sigh*