San Diego Madison Invitational - NE

San Diego, CA, October 1-2, 2005

Results

San Diego shines for two day Madison invitational

By Sean Burke and Eddie Monnier

The Young and the Old...
Photo ©: Mitch Clinton

The annual two-day invitational Madison is one of the San Diego Velodrome's most popular events. Billed as a "for-fun" event, the promoters attempt to pair teams to keep the racing close and exciting. The field was unusually deep this year and included Olympians, national champions and master's world champions.

Saturday's racing started off with a motorpaced Madison that demonstrated "for fun" doesn't mean "go slow" and also offered a glimpse into the depth of this year's field.

The first day of racing also included a team effort flying lap, chariot races, miss-and-out, and two five-lap scratch races that led directly into the final Madison of the day. By day's end, it was clear that this was a three horse race. Chad Milliken and his coach and track legend Gil Hatton racked up 55 points. National champion Sarah Hammer and Malaysian Olympian Josiah Ng were trailing by only three points. The Cliff Bar team consisting of two-time para-Olympian Dory Selinger and his junior phenom teammate Daniel Holloway led everyone else with 31 points.

Sarah Hammer and Josiah Ng
Photo ©: Mitch Clinton

On Sunday teams reassembled for a day packed with even more racing. The day kicked off with a couple of scratch races leading directly into a 35-lap Madison. The Ng/Hammer team and the Cliff Bar team worked hard to make up ground on the leaders, but despite all the hard work, neither was able to wrestle the lead away. A two-lap standing start and several short scratch races also provided some exciting racing. The best of the rest continued to battle it out for the remaining spots, which caused quite a bit of movement on the lower portion of the scoreboard.

Many of the fourth through 10th placed teams were close on points heading into the final 70-lap Madison which resulted in some fast and furious racing. The Cliff Bar team and several of the lower ranked teams, especially the duo of Casteneda/Burke, rode very aggressively. The Hatton/Milliken and Hammer/Ng teams continued to dominate the sprints, and despite the many efforts, no other team could make up any serious ground. Once again, Hatton and Milliken topped the leader board, followed by Hammer/Ng, and Team Cliff Bar. After the racing ended, everyone agreed that fast can also be fun.

Photography

For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here

Images by Mitch Clinton/www.clintonphoto.com

Josiah Ng showing some of that Olympic form.
Gil Hatton gets thrown into action by Chad Milliken
Chad Milliken
Sarah Hammer
Sarah Hammer and Josiah Ng execute a hand sling
The Young and the Old... Daniel Holloway tries in vain to fend off the old pro Gil Hatton on their way to the line

Results

1 Gil Hatton/Chad Milliken                         112 pts
2 Sarah Hammer/Josiah Ng                            96
3 Team Cliff Bar - Dori Selinger/Daniel Holloway    89
4 Scott Evans/Steve Geerligs                        63
5 Javier Casteneda/Sean Burke                       47
6 Anna Webb/Shaun Wallace                           37
7 Kevin Schiller/ Adam Smith                        40
8 Eric Hollenbeck/Eddie Monnier                     33
9 Jeremy Mucha/Tom Dahill                           16
10 John Arnold/Chris Bennet                         11