I woke up not feeling particularly hungry, so I just had a glass of juice for breakfast and then lounged around until it was time to head to brooklyn to meet up with the rest of the team. I threw a banana and a pack of pop-tarts in the car with me and drove off. Traffic on the LIE from street sweepers cleaning the HOV lane got me to Keith's place about 20 minutes late or so. Andy, Jen, Keith and I all jumped into Keith's car real quick with the 4 bikes on the back, and we headed to PA. Instead of taking the Verrazano, we went across Manhattan into Jersey. It definitely went a lot quicker this way. We stopped along the way to get some pizza and bagels and made it to t-town by maybe 5:15pm. We all rode around the bike path thingy in the park across the street from the velodrome for a few laps and then came back to register and get ready. We warmed up a bit, wondering if they would combine fields as the turnout looked very light. I thought maybe it was from the threat of rain for the evening, but Andrew Brennan said the past weeks were light. Maybe everyone is just burning out or something. There were still 6 riders from the Polish national team who definitely were not burnt out. The fields ended up staying separate, with 11 riders in the Stagiares. Good enough to get upgrade points.
The first race was an Unknown Distance Scratch. I told the guys that I figured the race would probably be around 5 laps, so I decided I would take my usual suicide attack after around 2 laps and then see if I could hold it to the end. Non-team Keith attacked on the first lap, and then I attacked hoping to bridge and maybe get a two person move going, but he told me his legs weren't recovered from a road race he did over the weekend, so I just went past and kept my head down. Around, around, around, hoping to hear the bell. Finally the bell was rung on lap seven, so I gave it my all hoping to stay ahead, but the pack caught and passed me by the end of the backstretch. Fair enough. I don't know how Keith or Andy did in the sprint.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/210745140
Next was a ten lap Tempo. Now that my legs were already feeling good and heavy from the first effort, I switched to just sitting in and hoping for a lucky sprint. This is how it played out. I sat in, eventually attacking for a first place across the line on one of the laps, maybe 4 laps in or so. After that, I kept trying to get up to the front to take some second place points. In hindsight, I should have just tried to recover more and then gone for a hard sprint at the end, as I was always too far back for points. Regardless, it was enough to give me 5th overall. I think Andy said he got second place in one of the sprints somewhere in there.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/210745125
The final Stagiare race was an Elimination. I was determined to not be the first out of the race like last time. I clipped and strapped in at the ready area, so I was ready to go. Through the race, I stayed near the back, mostly since I was barely hanging on, but it was nice to play the devil a little bit. The number of riders went down and down, including mini Nothstein. Finally, there were five of us left, which was all I was hoping for. The next sprint, Keith and I were the two at the back, so I sat up to keep him in. I was fading hard anyhow, so I figured he had a better chance. This gave me 5th place again, with Keith getting third.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/210745109
This concluded the Stagiare Omnium. Andrew thought he heard I got 5th overall, which would have given me a $10 payout. No upgrade points, but money is money. Turns out I was in 6th place, one point shy. Oh well.
Finally, Andy talked me into trying the Pro/Am feature. This was a 30 lap scratch. I was jonesing for a beer, so I figured I would just sit in for 5 laps or so. Whenever I got dropped off the back. I stayed near the back to middle the whole time, just riding the surges in speed. One Polish rider went off the front and the rest of the polish team slowed the pace up enough to bunch everyone back up again. Andy attacked to try to bridge and the speed went straight up. It was amazing, the Polish guys started shouting and you could see them sprinting out of the saddle, noses to the bars. Andy was able to stay in no-man's land for a few laps, but eventually dropped back again and slid out the back. I was still sitting pretty past the half-way point of the race, but finally I saw a guy looking like he was going to slide down on the back of the group, so I opened a gap for him to drop in. He didn't, and now I was left with a growing gap to try to close. Which I didn't, so I just sat up. I made it 18 laps, so I was happy.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/210745100
I packed up my stuff and ran to the concessions, but they were closed up. Oh well. No beer for me.
As for Jen, I thought she looked good in the pro women's races. The polish women were mostly beating on everyone else, but she held in there well. I think within a few weeks she'll really be mixing it up with them.
We all packed up the car and headed out for some late night burritos. Sadly, the place was closed, so we stopped at a supermarket instead. I had a pack of mike&ikes, two slices of watermellon, and a big jug of limeade. Eatin' right. When we stopped for gas on the way back, I also had two taquitos from 7-11. That was a terrible idea. Back in Brooklyn, I packed my car and Jen offered up her couch for me to crash on, which I should have taken, but I opted for driving home instead. I was kind of worried I didn't close the back door to the house. The drive back sucked, with massive downpours from a big lightning storm. I stopped at the Velvet Lounge for a quick beer and to say hello to Margot, then went home and passed out.
I feel like these race reports are getting too long winded. Eh.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment