LAVRA Spring Omnium, 4 June 2022

Last Saturday was the third and final LAVRA (Los Angeles Velodrome Racing Association) Spring Omnium for 2022. Races, held at the Velo Sports Center included Win-and-Out, Tempo, Scratch, Points, Snowball and Elimination, with the morning session ending with another round of the SoCal Madison Cup. The 2022 SoCal Madison Cup - the actual trophy cup, mind you - made its appearance before the Madison racers took to the track, and the series (I believe) will resume in the Fall during LAVRA's Fall Omnium, with the cup being awarded to the series champions after the winter Carnival in mid-December.

 "... Round and round

What comes around goes around

I'll tell you why

Yeah...

Another day, some other way

We're gonna go, but then we'll se you again...

I knew right from the beginning

That you would end up winning

I knew right from the start...

Round and round

What comes around goes around..."

(Pearcy and DeMartini)

While the Men's Pro/1-2 field on Saturday was a bit deficient in numbers this time around, the Women's Pro/1-3 field more than made up for the lack and was especially competitive throughout the morning's races. Once again Chloe Patrick proved herself to be among the most dominant women racers in the nation. We also got to watch Samantha Bosco, a fellow Claremontian, in a "rare" local appearance - she is often away, competing with the Team USA Paralympics Cycling squad. In fact, Bosco won four Gold Medals in May during a Spring World Cup sweep through Europe, which included time trial and road race wins in both Ostend, Belgium and Elzach, Germany. Seeing her racing at the Velo Sports Center at the beginning of June gives us some hope that we will see her in September when the USA Cycling Para-cycling Track National Championships will take place at the VSC.

Even though the Women's Pro/1-3 field gets top billing here today, make no mistake the other races were equally competitive from start to finish, with attacks and pursuits, and close finishes being the norm, not the exception, even the Men's Pro/1-2, which generally resolved into a contest between Robles and Mendonca was a fight to the tape. As for the others, well lets just say I seemed to notice Krystian Stankiewcz and Elise Traylor emerge out of their respective Cat 4 races enough to believe they had pretty good days on their way to Omnium wins. And the Cat 3 races, as the photo below shows quite clearly, were all just a blur [pun intended] as they sped around the oval.

You know it is kind of surprising just how quiet that big space can get between races when the wheels stop spinning and, conversely, just how loud those same spinning wheels are when rolling over those narrow strips of Siberian Pine, thirty-three miles worth of narrow strips. Quite often, blowing whistles, dribbling basketballs, or the thunderous kills of slapped volleyballs on the infield courts, fill the short moments between races. Yet there are other days, like last Saturday, when the quick dribbling of a single basketball player sent echoes ricocheting from the boards, off the walls, to wrap around the flags hanging from the rafters. Lots of little things to notice.

Bosco (149) and Patrick (114) flanked by (Monique Snieders (148 - top) and Charlene Yarnall (118)

Men's 3 race a blur as they race past

Sammantha Bosco at the front of the Women's Pro/1-3 race

Men Pro/1-2 + Kate Wilson

Ricky Yarnall (77) and Aidan Beckman

Emy Solis (161), Sarah Vargas (164) and Elise Traylor (145) Women 4/Novice

Tommy Robles (25) and Jessee Mendonca (38) Men P/1-2

trust the Beard Collective - one to officiate, one to announce

Tad Kendall & Kat Kendall - Development Madison

Omnium results:

Women P/1-3: 1st, Chloe Patrick, 2nd Monique Snieders, 3rd Samantha Bosco, 4th Charlene Yarnall, 5th Vikki Appel, 6th Sarah Munoz, 7th Sarah Mattes, 8th Karlene Rahn

Men P/1-2: 1st Tommy Robles, 2nd Jesse Mendonca, 3rd Kate Wilson, 4th Theodore Kirkbride

Women 4/Novice: 1st Elise Traylor, 2nd Sarah Vargas, 3rd Alexa Castro, 4th Emy Solis, 5th Abigail Moe, 6th Cindy Saldivar

Men 4/Novice: 1st Krystian Stankiewcz, 2nd James Lavender, 3rd Timothy Mendoza, 4th Aaron Rabinowitz

Men 3: 1st Gama Lara, 2nd Ricky Yarnall, 3rd Brian Mitchell, 4th Aidan Beckman, 5th Roberto Betancourt, 6th Vidal Estrada, 7th Stephen Buron, 8th Phil Klinkon, 9th David Weiner

Development Madison: 1st Jesse Mendonca & Emi Solis, 2nd Chloe Patrick & Riley Halpern, 3rd Sarah Vargas & Vikki Appel, 4th Sarah Mattes & Abigail Moe, 5th Tad Kendall & Kat Kendall

Elite Madison: 1st Luis Che & Luis Gonzalo Josue Olivos, 2nd Krystian Stankiewicz & Kate Wilson

And finally, the photo album link. Don't forget, there are a couple big events coming up at the Velo Sports Center, including the USA Cycling Paracycling National Track Championships, September 9-10, and the UCI Masters Track World Championships, September 24 to October 1.