McKenna in repose at LA Velo Sports Center
Photo: Velo Sports Center (Instagram: @velosportsctr)

From PA to CA

It didn’t take long this past Wednesday, July 9, for McKenna McKee (Tesseract Racing) to display her power, speed, and smarts, and make an impact in the first session of the LA Velo Summerslam UCI track event (scheduled every Wednesday and Saturday during the month of July}.

Coming off of her gold medal win in the elite women Keirin in June at the Valley Preferred Cycling Center (Trexlertown, PA), McKenna competed in the first LA Velo Summerslam keirin tournament, in a field of 20 racers from eleven countries. M was perfect in her first two rounds, finishing 1st in the Round 1 race, and placing first again in her Round 2 semifinal. The Final Keirin race saw four USA racers in the mix, with the other two from South Korea and Colombia.

In the women's keirin race, the motorcycle pulls off the track with 2.6 laps to go. The moto gradually increases the speed of the race to 45 kph (approximately 28 mph) before leaving the track. In most women keirin races, the riders can reach speeds of up to 70 kph (43 mph) at the finish.

The Colombian rider, Stefany Cuadrado, reached the finish line first for the gold, with McKenna closely behind for the silver. USA team mate Felice Beitzel came in third for the bronze.

If you’d like to learn more about velodrome racing, you can find her playlist, “Intro to Track Racing!” on McKenna’s M*PROVE*IT YouTube channel.

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