TSV Strikes Gold, Silver and Bronze at Master's Track Nationals

September 6, 2007 - 4:18pm :: Webmaster

A strong team of Tri-State Velo trackies, Julie Klinger, Matt Diefenbach, Taylor Fenstermacher, Jon Hallingstad, Steve Lehman, Jeff Moore, Jimmy Prestia and Neal Stansbury displayed their strengths in front of a hometown crowd at the Masters National Track Championships. This annual event at the newly named Valley Preferred Cycling Center (formerly Lehigh Valley Velodrome) in Trexlertown, PA.

On Monday, August 27, Julie led the assault with a 4th place finish in the 500m Time Trial. She returned with another 4th place in the 2000m Pursuit later in the day. On Tuesday she capped a great couple of days with a 2nd place finish in the medals round of the 50+ Match Sprint.

Steve stunned his 60-64 field by winning his 2000m Pursuit over 13.5 seconds ahead of second place. Later Monday evening Olympian Jon Hallinstad finished 2nd in the 45-49 Kilometer Time Trial. Despite a sub-par performance (for him,) he was less than 16/100's of a second off the winning pace. . .a real heartbreaker.

Taylor Fensermacher Taylor showed how a summer of TTown, Friday Night races and a lot of hard work pays off. He rode very strong in the hotly contested 40-44 Points Race to pick up a silver medal for his effort. Another Friday Night regular, Olympian and fast man, Matt, rode powerfully to finish 2nd in the very tough 40-44 Match Sprint field.
Friday, August 31 was the closing day of the Championship and the day of team events. Matt Diefenbach's opening leg set the pace for the winning 30+ Olympic Sprint Team. . .kaching, another Gold! Later that morning our team of Neal, TSV alumnus Art McHugh, Jon and Steve finished third in the 40+ Team Pursuit. What made this somewhat incredible was that the average age of the team was 55, certainly putting the plus in 40+.

Steve Lehman The final event of the evening as well as this tremendous championship event was the 45+ Madison. The largest audience of the week was treated to an incredible battle between two hometown teams. Neal (in his first Madison race) and Art teamed up again and fought valiantly. They came up a bit short in the last two sprints, but still nailed a well earned 2nd place.