A Couple of Cyclists Come Full Circle in Pursuit of U.S. Sprint Championship

Like many married couples, Tim and Barbara Roach often go around in circles when it comes to deciding what to eat, where to go and what to watch on TV.

But when it comes to sports, they share a relationship that goes in cycles.

When they met for the first time at the Encino Velodrome, she was a tennis player and he was a nationally ranked junior sprint cyclist.

“The deal we struck was that she would teach me to play tennis, and I would teach her how to race,” said Tim. “Well, here we are nine years later, and I still can’t play tennis.”

But Barbara is beginning to raise a racket in the cycling world.

She won the Southern California and Nevada district championships last month to qualify for the U. S. Cycling Federation National Sprint Championships in August at Redmond, Wash.

Barbara, 28, has qualified in three events:

1,000-meter sprint, a race between two to four riders. The riders draw for position and the loser leads the pack through nothing slower than a walking pace. The race is basically decided in a 200-meter sprint to the finish.

Points, a 15-kilometer race with one-lap sprints every five laps that earn riders five points for first, four for second, three for third, two for fourth, one for fifth. Points for the middle and final sprints count double.

Kilo, short for a one-kilometer time trial. Only one rider at a time, going from a standing start, is on the track.

The only event that Roach, by choice, did not qualify in was the pursuit--a three-kilometer time trial with two riders who start on opposite sides of the track, then try to catch the other. “Too grueling for me,” she said.

That from a woman who trains seven days a week and whose winter workouts included morning rides from Lomita to Santa Monica and hourlong runs up and down a 170-step staircase.

Roach’s goal this year is to make the U.S. team. The top eight riders from the national championships will make it--four on the A team, four on the B team.

Earlier this year, Roach was invited to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., to train with national coaches. She left after a few weeks because she wasn’t getting the individual attention she said she needed.

“I just wasn’t getting anything out of it,” Barbara said. “I like to get all the feedback I can about what I’m doing right and what I’m doing wrong. You can’t get that kind of attention with 200 riders in camp.”

You can get it, however, when your husband is your coach and the cycling director at the Olympic Velodrome at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

“Tim is a good coach because he still has that junior attitude he had when he was racing,” Barbara said. “He’s crazy. Sometimes, what is said out on the track gets carried over to home. But, we’ve survived it.”

Barbara has also worked herself through the death of close friend Rod Ballard, who died from a racing accident at Encino Velodrome last September. Ballard, who was 36, was a dedicated cyclist who used to ride from Brentwood to Encino with his racing bike on his back.

“He was an inspiration,” Barbara said. “He was the first person who showed me how to go past your mind when you’re pushing to the limit. I still hear his voice when I train.”

Even after Ballard’s death, Roach said, she has not been fazed by the danger of riding a brakeless, fixed-gear bicycle on a crowded, banked track.

“When Rod died, everyone who knew him kind of said to themselves, ‘Hey, that could have been me,’ ” Roach said. “But when I think about it, I’ve been more seriously injured roller skating to work than I have ever been when I’m racing. If something happens to me on the track, at least it’s where I want to be.”

Roach began racing against men on the BMX circuit when she was 22. Three years later, tired of the spills and in need of a job, she went to a beauty college to get a cosmetology license. Last year, she began to seriously train as a sprint cyclist.

“The older you get, the more mentally strong you become,” she said. “Young kids have more speed, but if you want something you can get it. I’m an extremist. It’s either all the way or not at all.”

That attitude carried over to the salon chair when Roach decided to have her blond hair cut into a spiked flat top. Aerodynamic advantages aside, Roach said the benefits are psychological.

“Some people say that I’m intimidating when I race,” said Roach, who works on sharpening her mental reflexes by playing video games before racing. “I think I have a reputation for being a little wild on the track.”

The same could be said for her off the track.

Roach is allergic to milk, but she loves the stuff so she drinks it. She’s allergic to cats. She has two of them. “When you want something bad enough, you’re willing to pay the price,” Roach said. “Sometimes while racing, I’ll see an opening and just go after it. There’s a lot of contact out there on the track and you can’t afford to panic.”

Roach has learned to keep a cool head during competition by practicing with other riders who voluntarily bump each other, lock handlebars and generally cause whatever mayhem they can.

“It takes a lot of dedication, but there isn’t anything I’d rather do than be a cyclist,” Roach said. “My parents used to think I was crazy, but I’m not as offbeat as my parents think.

“Of course, they haven’t seen this haircut yet, either.”