Alan Marcoson places 1st, Doreen Papajcik places 3rd, Pat Galla places 4th, Mark Ballenger places 28th at, 
Spring Presque Isle Time Trial Presque Isle, PA

Jim Behrens and Tony Smith place 1st at, 
Michigan State Championship Senior Olympics 20k Road Race Watreford, MI

Mark Ballenger places 1st at, 
National Victory Games 5k, 1500m & 2000m Time Trial, Lansing, MI

Joe Nieto places 3rd. at, 
Races at the Lake #4, Munroe Falls, OH

Barry Miller places 1st at, 
Philadelphia Naval Yard Criterium, Philadelphia, PA

Daniel Mendoza places 6th at, 
MWCCC Regional Championships at Lindenwood University TTT, Defiance, MI

Tony Smith and Pat Galla place 1st, Mark Ballenger places 2nd. at, 
Tri County Regional Senior Olympic Time Trial 5k, Cuyahoga Falls, OH

Tere Camacho places 2nd at, 
West Palm Beach ITT #3, West Palm Beach , FL

Daniel Mendoza places 5th at, 
University of Missouri ITT, Centralia, Missouri

Barry Miller places 27th at, 
Rutas de America (UCI 2.2), Uruguay

Published: Sunday, September 13, 2009      

By SCOT ALLYN
sallyn@MorningJournal.com

The Lorain County Speedway usually plays host to thundering high-performance stock cars and fans screaming for their favorite speed demons as they roar to victory or defeat.

But on Thursday nights this summer, the paved oval track held a quieter, but no less competitive, kind of racing. USA Pista Elite, Ohio's only professional bicycle racing team, met at the banked course to train and race on track bikes weighing as little as 14.5 pounds.

The team includes a Columbia Station man and an Amherst teen. Team members ride spidery machines called fixed-gear bikes, made of aluminum and high-tech compounds such as carbon fiber and titanium. Riders' shoes clip to the pedals, and the brightly colored bikes have only one speed and no brakes.

Joe Nieto, 39, of Columbia Station, raced this season after a 20-year break to get married and raise two children. The return to racing came after a January layoff left him with time to pursue an old passion.

"When I was a young man, I raced for the Cleveland Wheelmen," an earlier version of USA Pista Elite, he said. But maintaining a national level of competitiveness required a greater commitment than he could give.

"You have to dedicate your life to the sport, and I did not want to do that," he said, since he is a Jehovah's Witness.

"I do it now to stay in shape and as a hobby. I actually feel a little younger and I probably lost 10 pounds. I also like to help the younger people in the sport."

One of the younger people is Kyle Hill, 16, a junior at Amherst Steele High School. During the school year, he is a forward on the Comets hockey team, and has ridden for USA Pista Elite for five or six years, he said.

Hill said he prefers bicycling to competitive running, which he did before high school.

"Everyone (in a foot race) works as hard as they can and falls over at the end," he said. "On track cycling, you can only go so fast, so it has a lot to do with positioning and timing. Everyone has a tactic they try to apply, so you read them and try to work against that. It's a lot of judgment calls. And you don't throw up at the end."

Hill said he has treated hockey more seriously than cycling for the last few years, but plans to change.

"I saw how much time I would have to put into hockey, and I'd suffer academically," he said. "In cycling you get to ride no matter what, and you never have to sit on the bench. So I've decided to push the cycling a lot harder."

Starting in January, Hill plans to work with a personal coach on aspects of track racing, including training and race tactics."

Tony Smith, 50, is the USA Pista Elite team manager and a competitor in his own right.

"At Lorain County Speedway, we had a range, including people who were learning how to ride a bike," he said. "Joe (Nieto) is trying to gain his fitness and competitiveness back, and Kyle Hill is a national-level racer. People worked on all different kinds of things." Hill won a bronze medal at the national track racing championship in 2007 in Colorado Springs, Smith said.

One night this summer at the Lorain County Speedway, an Ohio highway patrol trooper clocked Smith, Nieto and Hill at 47.5 mph with his radar gun, Smith said. The Ohio State Track Championship took place there in July, with Hill and Smith each winning first places in two different events.

"I view cycling as a contact sport," Smith said. "It's a full-contact ballet on two wheels. Nobody is punching or elbowing, but there is pushing and bumping, which are allowed in the rules. Riders are competing for the same space, so they ride into each other. You can go through there like a pinball."

Riding without brakes may seem unwise to the uninitiated, but Smith insists it's safe.

"It's far less dangerous than road racing," he said. "There's no car traffic to worry about. The most dangerous thing is when riders panic, which doesn't usually happen on a track."

Slowing down is possible by putting back pressure on the pedals, he said.

"You can also put a gloved hand down on the front tire," he said. "You can't stop fast, but it's safe, because there are no cars. Every time I've been in a crash, it's because someone does something abrupt. But when nobody has brakes, you have a different kind of flow."

There were no crashes at the Lorain County Speedway this year, he said.

PISTA RIDERS 2008on Track for US Nationals

USA Pista Elite riders are going to the US Track Nationals in LA, California. The Jakob Smith and Erick Madis, hope to come back with the gold.