CYCLING / MIKE GLAZE : Augello Opts to Shift Gears After Stint as Running Coach

Bob Augello does not like to stay in one coaching job for too long, and for good reason.

He is wary of repetition.

In recent years, Augello has made steady progress in his coaching career, climbing a step higher in prestige with each move and experiencing success along the way.

Since his high school coaching days at Granada Hills High and the recent conclusion of a two-year stint with the cross-country and track programs at Cal State Northridge, Augello has found a new challenge.

A cross-training fanatic, Augello retired his stopwatch at Northridge to take an assistant coaching position with the Escondido-based Subaru Cycling Team.

“I had a couple of goals when I came to Northridge,” Augello said. “One was to have a national championship team or individual (in cross-country) and a national champion on the track.”

Augello accomplished those objectives. Last fall, the Northridge men’s team captured the West regional cross-country title and Darcy Arreola won the NCAA Division II women’s championship. In May, freshman Erick McBride won the 800 meters in the Division II track finals.

“If I stayed (at Northridge), I’d just be repeating myself. I accomplished my goals and the prospects of accomplishing greater goals are slim,” Augello said. “I moved to this level (with Subaru) because I get to work with some older people.”

Headline cyclists such as Steve Hegg, the gold medalist in the 4,000-meter individual pursuit in the 1984 Olympics, and Van Nuys’ Thurlow Rogers, with whom Augello, 34, will be working, impressed the coach with their professionalism and work ethic.

While at Granada Hills and Northridge, Augello employed cycling workouts as part of his runners’ daily regimen.

Long rides along Pacific Coast Highway and through Malibu Canyon were not uncommon. He also popularized the Turbo-trainer, a stationary cycling workout designed to stimulate fast-twitch muscle fibers.

“Cycling is exciting,” Augello said. “It’s a cross between auto racing and running. You have to be physically fit and have the best equipment.”

To protect and serve: Anticipating a career change after coaching the Subaru team under Director-Coach Eddie Borysewicz, Augello has applied with the Los Angeles fire and police departments.

“I need a little more excitement in my life,” he said. “I’m really hoping for a paramedic position. You work one day, get a day off, work another, get a day off, work another and then you get five days off. So in 10 days, you’re only working three.”

Rolling thunder: Encino Velodrome racers circle the 250-meter banked oval at speeds approaching 45 m.p.h., the noise of their bicycles merely a whisper as they whiz past the lap counter.

But now and again a booming sound breaks the relative silence: Chris Johnson of Santa Barbara is on the track.

Johnson’s aerodynamic disc wheels--which reduce wind drag--create a thunderous racket, but they also help Johnson cut his track times by nearly two seconds per kilometer.

Normally a kilometer racer Johnson, of the Diamondback racing team, treats miss-and-out and points-race events at the Velodrome as workouts.

His presence, though, can be heard all around the track, and that can work against Johnson because his opponents know where he is at all times.

Miss and out: Cycling has its own version of indoor track and field’s “Devil Take the Hindmost Mile.”

However, unlike the running event, no crazed lunatic dressed in satanic garb and wielding a trident jumps onto the velodrome track and chases the last-place rider, forcing him out of the race.

The cyclists start simultaneously, lined up behind one another at the top of a banked straightaway. After each lap, the last rider to cross the start-finish line drops out of the race and the procedure is continued until three racers remain. Unlike the mile, there is no set distance. Race length depends on the number of starters.

Like the devil’s mile, there is a massive sprint to the lap marker.