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Connie Carpenter's view from the infield: T scores silver
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Youth and wisdom.
Four laps pretty much flat out. The kilo is short. Painful.
Taylor rode off the track with his head down, I could tell from the stands that he was disappointed. Or as coach Neal said, “he’s stunned.”
The former World Champion (2003) Stefan Nimke cranked a 1.00.666 in the ride just before T took to the track. Blazing fast. A sea level world best time. Taylor rode slightly faster than he rode in Copenhagen and set a new American record – but it was a full second behind the German. Deflated, he rolled to the infield to warmdown.
An even dozen riders left to ride, all of them ranked higher than T and all with certainly more experience. It’s no secret that this was Taylor’s third kilo race … and not an event he’s specifically trained for. Although Taylor mused that in fact he had raced 17 complete 4k pursuits in the past 18 months which means that technically he had done, 68 kilos plus about five 3k pursuits, so really – it’s more than 80. I’m probably forgetting one.
Youth. Always reaching.
As each of the top contenders failed to best his time, Taylor started to smile just a little bit and breathe a sigh of relief.
“That was painful,” he said.
The kilo is a peculiar event done mostly by sprinters who start off very fast and most appear to be riding in mud on the last half lap. Or as one of the British coaches suggested, they could let the bike run faster on its own – feet out of the pedals at that point. In Taylor’s case, as an endurance athlete, he had the two fastest closing laps but was only 22nd after the first two. He is the antithesis of the average kilo rider.
The medalists sat in the corral by the award stand waiting for their medal ceremony. The Malaysian rider Tisin noted that the winner had won the kilo at the Worlds in 2003. Taylor observed that “I was 13 and hadn’t started racing.”
Youth. Ever present.
Later, Eddie Borysewicz corralled me. Eddie of course was the U.S. National team coach in the 80’s when I raced, but he was born and raised in Poland. He is working here. He told me on the first day, “I am problem guy” and I thought, huh?
But he meant if we have a problem, let him know. Oh yeah right.
Tonight Eddie said, “Connie, I have to congratulate you. Very good. Your son is very good. You should be very happy.”
I wait. Smile. He has already told me that in fact, Taylor is better than both Davis and me put together. I know that more is coming. The wisdom part kicks in.
Knowing.
Eddie continues, “Taylor is like Mom. He starts too fast and needs to work on his start … and should change the crank length and so on.”
I can’t really hear him altogether that well; I am not 100-percent certain if he’s talking about the kilo (where he surely did not start too fast) or the pursuit (which he won). But I know he means well, knows his stuff and as he says, “I am coach, I can’t help it. You understand? This is not bad thing.”
No Eddie, it’s not a bad thing. He doles it out like a gift.
I listened through the din of the cheering and announcing, as the Aussies fought valiantly - but lost the gold medal ride in the team pursuit to the more experienced Danes. Average age of the Aussies is nineteen.
Youth.
Eddie is not a young man but he knows and loves the sport. It’s fun for me to see him here, in his homeland, on the track…and yes, to hear his opinions. Just hearing his voice takes me back once again on a time trip of long forgotten days and experiences…I muse about the limited time he spent with me. I was not his favored child. But here we are, still in the sport.
We embrace. And now with wisdom, hindsight, and clarity I say something I probably never said before, “thanks Eddie.”
