Well I'm writing this report a bit late, so the details are fuzzy or more likely just non-existent. It's weird, my season is basically over now so I'm really not particularly motivated to keep up with the training blog or training in general, but the past few weeks have really gotten me motivated to race still. I think it's the team. I'll just put it out there, Pink Rhino is awesome. This group of guys and gals is the best and they're definitely motivating me in a positive way to strive for better results. Hopefully I can get to the last few T-town Tuesdays to lock up some upgrade points for next year. Alright, let's get to this:
The weather was probably nice. Warm to hot, I'd say. There might have been some wind. I seem to remember wind. I really should just make myself write these things the same day. I had an interview in the morning that I just barely woke up on time for because I was out late working on a jigsaw puzzle with friends the night before (no, really. I'm that lame) so I didn't eat breakfast. I think I had a bowl of cereal after I got back around noon and that was it for the day. About halfway to the track I realized I might not have stuffed my race number in my bag. Turns out that was the case, but I got a new one from Alan. I talked to Josh for a little, then warmed up and got ready to race. There was a really good turnout of riders this week. Probably the biggest all year. It almost rivaled the turnout on Saturday, I'd say. A lot of the USMA riders showed up again, which was cool. I was the only Pink Rhino representing, though.
The first race was a 5 lap Super Tempo. My plan was to sit on wheels and try to outsprint anybody else at the line. What actually happened was I attacked hard at the whistle, getting the first lap's points. I sat up a little bit after the sprint to get back into the group, then went hard again to take lap two. After this one I had a little gap with Josh closing in. I let him come around hoping we could get a little two person attack going, but he started to fade a bit. The group caught up and passed us, I latched on and got in a third place sprint. The details of the final two sprints I don't really remember, but apparently I won both of those, too. This gave me the win.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/214337271
Next was a Devil's Scratch. This is a combination of a devil-takes-the-hindmost (aka miss and out, or elimination) and then a scratch. Alan said he would bring the field of 17 riders down to 8, then there would be a six lap scratch. I was feeling a little exhausted from my efforts in the last race, so my plan was to sit at the back and play the role of the devil. Every lap I would drop all the way back, then ramp the speed up just before turn 3 until I knew my back wheel was ahead of at least one other rider. It's actually pretty fun to do, and if you can handle the acceleration each time around it's not super difficult either. This is basically how the whole elimination part went. There was a crash on the second to last elimination lap. I think it was a military academy rider. I don't know what happened, but hopefully he's alright. Alan neutralized us for a lap, and then he pulled the last rider. The scratch was pretty uneventful. I might have tried an attack. I don't really remember. I found myself at the front with about a lap and a half, so I figured I would just try to diesel in. It almost worked, but I got edged out at the line, which put me in second place.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/214337263
After this was a 15 lap Points race with four sprints. I couldn't figure out how the sprint were supposed to be set up because usually they're at even intervals, but Alan said it was just like a 16 lap, but he would just take out one of the laps at the beginning. Works for me. I was feeling the lack of food by now, so I was just planning on sitting in for a little bit, then dropping out. Josh was feeling the same way, so we decided we would try to alternate hammering on the front with Francisco, just because we could. I found myself stuck back a bit during the neutral lap, so I couldn't really help out, but they tried it for a couple of laps. Eventually I was able to get up front and hammer for a little. I came in second in the first sprint, fourth in the second. After this I basically sat in the back. I would try little accelerations here and there, but it was mostly from me debating deep down inside if I really wanted to keep racing or not. I finally figured I would sit through the whole race and sat up on the last lap. I was happy with my results for the night.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/214337252
This concluded the 3/4 races. It was really starting to get dark by now, so the other fields' races were abbreviated a bit. Everyone got three races in though, so I'd call that a success. I came in second overall in the omnium, behind Francisco. Next week will be the last twilight race of the year, so hopefully we can end the season with another good turrnout. My guess is there'll be some short races due to the earlier sunsets now. Results are posted here:
http://kissenavelodrome.info/results/2012/Kissena12TwilightSeriesWeek16.pdf
EDIT: all these races were done in my typical 90" (50x15) gear.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment