Teamwork Leads to Cycling Win for Bevan

Chris Bevan, Chris Gaido and Fred Markham broke away from the 14-rider field slightly more than halfway through the Jack Kemp Memorial 10-mile race at the Encino Velodrome on Saturday night, which made for pretty good odds for Bevan and Markham.

“We planned before the race to work together,” said Bevan, 19, of Woodland Hills. “We knew that Gaido is a good sprinter and we had to watch out for him.”

The strategy worked as Bevan pulled away from newfound teammate Markham and Gaido on the back straight of the final lap to win the 64-lap race in 21 minutes 19.07 seconds.

Bevan’s time smashed Ron Skarin’s track record of 22:21.4.

Markham held off Gaido for second, followed by Benjamin Swan and Butch Stinton.

Bevan, Markham and Gaido broke away from the field on Lap 23 and exchanged the lead for the next 22 laps until Gaido took a slight advantage going into the bell lap.

The race was named in memory of one of the original founders of the 29-year-old velodrome. Kemp died earlier this month.

In another special race, Pushpita of the Indonesian national team emerged victorious in the inaugural Chuck Pranke Memorial sprints.

Season points leader Chris Johnson placed second in the round-robin competition, followed by Scott Skellenger, Markham and Luis Alcaraz.

Pranke, a sprinter on the 1968 U. S. Olympic team, helped promote races at the velodrome in the early 1970s, including the International Grand Prix of Cycling.

Kevin Anderson won the miss-and-out and placed third in the points-and-scratch race to edge Cecil Hunte in senior men’s omnium by a point, 12-11.

In earlier events, Amandy Henry of the Montrose Cycle Club won the miss-and-out, points race and placed third in the scratch race to win the senior women’s omnium with 17 points, ahead of Katie Horndon (16) and Dana Rogers (11).