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Whitsell, Compton, Albor Win Road Time Trial at 2006 U.S. Paralympics Cycling National Championships
By Marvin Olberding
// U.S. Paralympics
// July 12, 2006
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Alejandro Albor (front, center) celebrates after receiving his gold medal as Paul Martin (left) and Mike Farrell (right) look on.
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SEVEN SPRINGS, Pa. - Karissa Whitsell (Springfield, Ore.), Katie Compton (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Alejandro Albor (Elk Grove, Calif.) fought through a tough course and won the men's and women's Road Time Trial, respectively, at the 2006 U.S. Paralympics Cycling National Championships.
The rolling 17.7km course was a highly technical one that challenged the athletes and produced a noticeable effect on their finishing times.
To determine who was crowned as national champions, each racer's finishing time was broken down to a per-kilometer average, and that was measured against the U.S. Paralympics Elite Standard for the racer's disability classification.
Whitsell, a visually impaired cyclist, combined with pilot Compton to finish the course in 30:56.39, a pace of 1:44.88/km. Her per-kilometer pace was 119.73 percent of the U.S. Paralympics Elite Standard for a tandem, and that percentage was the best of any athlete or tandem at the event. Barb Buchan (Bend, Ore.) finished with the silver and 18-year-old Greta Neimanas (Chicago, Ill.) won the bronze.
After the race, Whitsell, who won two gold medals at the 2004 Paralympic Games with Compton, cited teamwork as one of the things that helped her to the win.
"Going into the event, we knew we had our work cut out for us because it was a very technical course, the European-style time trial," Whitsell said. "We knew it was going to be tough, but we knew we had an advantage because Katie and I have been racing together for so long."
Albor attacked the course, finishing with a time of 35:49.13. The handcyclist's per-kilometer average was 119.86 percent of the Elite Standard, giving him the gold over Paul Martin (Boulder, Colo.) and Mike Farrell (Colorado Springs, Colo.). After the race, Albor was quick to point out the difficulty of the course.
"It was one of the toughest courses I have ever ridden on," Albor said.
U.S. Paralympics Cycling National Team head coach Craig Griffin (Colorado Springs, Colo.) praised his athletes for their efforts.
"Well, it was definitely a challenging course," Griffin said. "I think our athletes coped really well with it. From a pure performance standpoint and from a skill and technical standpoint, they did really, really well. So, even though the times weren't super-fast, and the course dictated that, the performances within our group were very, very strong and the strongest athletes rose to the occasion."
The National Championships will resume Friday with the track events, which will be held at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome in Trexlertown, Pa.
Results
Women (Percentage of Elite Standard)
Karissa Whitsell/Katie Compton (119.73)
Barb Buchan (130.16)
Greta Neimanas (134.39)
Monica Bascio (Evergreen, Colo., 135.07)
Suzanne Elbon (164.58)
Men
Alejandro Albor (119.86)
Paul Martin (126.68)
Mike Farrell (130.28)
Oscar Sanchez (San Diego, Calif., 131.93)
Anthony Zahn (Riverside, Calif., 132.98)
David Swanson/Scott Smith (both of Tucson, Ariz., 135.53)
Bruce Gordon (South Bend, Ind., 140.4)
Seth Arseneau (Albuquerque, N.M., 140.8)
Ronne Irvine (Ephrata, Pa., 141.72)
Matt Updike (Denver, Colo., 143.9)
Greg Lakomski (Elgin, Texas, 148.14)
Greg Hockensmith (Tucson, Ariz., 152.37)
James Davidson (Shelby Township, Mich., 156.8)
Alexander Mask (Pembroke Pines, Fla., 185.7)
Joshua Sundquist (Bridgewater, Va., 200.1)
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