Race: T-town Fuji Super Tuesdays 6/5 - Stagiares

I managed to get a good night's sleep for once.  Went to sleep around midnight, got up at 11ish or so.  I ate a slice of quiche, packed the car and boogied over to Steve's.  A little bit of waiting and he rolled up as well.  We packed his car and left for the mystical land of pennsylvania at roughly 1:15.

We got to T-town at around 4:30 or so, so we headed to the local panera for some dinner.  I went with the usual french onion soup and some kind of sandwich.  Saved my apple for later.

Anyhow, all this preamble is boring as hell, but I figure no detail is too small.  We got to the track, unpacked, got our numbers and waited.  warmed up...sat around...warmed up some more...sat around some more.  I think this was the first race I was ever early to.  I have to get the timing figured out.  Either way, I was having trouble staying warm and the occasional sprinkle of rain through the night sure didn't help.  This on and off rain started at around 7ish, just before the start of racing.  I actually thought for a few times that the races might get called.

Our first race was a ten lap Tempo race.  My overly ambitious plan was to attack early and try to get a little gap for points.  I tried on the second lap, I think, but could never get away.  I just ended up being a nice leadout for the second and third laps.  After this second attempt at getting away, I just faded straight through the group and off the back, where I languished until the race ended.  I found myself in a tough spot on the last lap, as by then I was a half lap or more behind, so after the main group went through, they started to let the women on the track.  I wasn't about to DNF this race, so I kept through, with one girl not paying attention almost walking into me.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/186113355

For the last race, I was running a 51x15, which I was thinking might be too hard while I was doing my final warm-up laps.  Rather than drop down, I figured I would see how it would be in an actual race.  I now had my answer, so I switched to a much more manageable 50x15.

The next race was a 20 lap points race.  I switched strategies to just sit in and try to sprint.  It actually worked pretty well.  I got a couple of 4th and 5th places across the line.  Basically, I would sit in, and sprint high and from the back.  Sadly, 20 laps is far too much for me to remember what all happened, so that's all the report you get for that one.  I got 5th overall for the race.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/186113351

The final race for the Stagiares (Cat 2/3 riders) was a 5 lap Scratch.  As with the first few races, I left the waiting pen last so I could get my straps tight, and rolled to the rail near last.  I was again able to move up a bit in the pack in the neutral lap, the gun was fired and I think Steve attacked with gusto.  I just sat in until about 2 to go, where I found myself near the front with Steve off the front with another rider (pretty sure this was how it happened).  I tried to go long for the sprint, passing steve and other rider with the group in turn 2 on the final lap, staying at front until turn 4, where a group of three passed, and one more got me at the line.  This put me in 5th again.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/186113338

This concluded the Omnium, with Steve and me off the charts.  Oh well.  At least the racing picked up for me.  After this was the Feature race, which was a 30 lap Scratch.  For some reason I thought it was a points race, so I got very confused when I didn't hear any sprint bells.  I tailgunned from the start, steve tried to make some moves, but when he rolled to the back of the group, someone really picked up the pace and we got gapped off the back.  I think we sat up at around 22 laps to go or so.  Oh well.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/186113330

A stop at wawa for sandwiches, and we were back on the road with the first tuesday night under our belts.