An Austin man recently cemented his stature in the American Bicycle Racing scene when he won his sixth Maters National Time Trial of his career.

Dave Thomsen, 68, of Austin beat out two other competitors in the 65 and older category with a time of 52 minutes and 52 minutes and 38.89 seconds in the 31.5 kilometer race.

“I’m just so happy to get my sixth win at Nationals,” Thomsen said. “Just to win it once would’ve been nice.”

The ABR Masters National Time Trial takes place in Garden Place, Ill. and Thomsen has collected a jersey from each title he won the race.

That’s not the only race the Austin resident has competed in this summer. Thomsen won eight gold medals at the Minnesota Senior games July 23 and July 24 in Alexandria. Thomsen ran in four races but took first in all four in the 50 year-old and over category and the 65-year old and over category so he doubled up his winning.

“I cleaned up big time there,” Thomsen said.

Now Thomsen’s summer is almost complete as his last race will be in Wisconsin for the Senior Olympics in two and a half weeks were he will race in two time trials in two road races.

“I just like to race,” Thomsen said. “I get good competition and I’ve had some good times. I don’t win all the time, but that’s good too. You’ve gotta have a challenge and you just keep going at them.”

And while racing is still fun, Thomsen plans to tone down his race count in the upcoming years.

“My wife doesn’t think I’m serious, but I don’t think I’ll be doing much more,” he said. “I’ll go to Nationals and maybe a couple other races. It’s kind of been there done that. It’s been a lot of fun, but you get aches and pain and you’re getting old.”

There is one thing that Thomsen will still pursue when he begins to slow down — records. Thomsen broke the record in the ages 65-69 category at the Grand View Firehouse 50 in 2008 with a time of 2:10:39.60. Once he turns 70, he will pursue some of the 70-years and older records.

“You have to have ideal conditions to set a record. It has to be little wind and good temperatures,” Thomsen said.

While racing, Thomsen has traveled as far West as Utah and he has made some friends around the country. For awhile, he raced for a team based out of Madison, Wis. and he has racing friends in Colorado, and Fresno.

“You don’t have to worry about a place to stay,” Thomsen said. “It’s a whole bunch of guys and we get rooms together. I could probably travel across the whole United States and not have to spend a dime on a hotel or anything, because you just get to know these guys.”

While racing with his team from Madison, Thomsen was part of a squad that won the Wisports overall title three years in a row — but now he races on his own since doesn’t get to as many contests.

While Thomsen works at part time at the YMCA in Austin, his main pride comes from racing. And while he may semi-retire from competitive racing, he’ll never stop racing leisurely.

“I won’t ever give up bike riding,” he said. “I’ll just do them when I want to do them.”