Today was Delroy Walters' Labor Day track meet. This was the 48th annual, and it's great to see the tradition continuing. The weather was near perfect: high 70s, mostly cloudy, with a strong wind picking up from time to time. I feel like the wind died down during the racing, though, because I didn't really notice it. It was coming out of the east, which would have affected the home stretch. I had spent the weekend watching my brother's cats while he was away, so I was a little stuffed up due to allergies. Honestly, I wasn't really too sure how competitive I would even be, but I decided to give it my best shot. I didn't really sleep well the night before, so that morning I opted to sleep in more and skip breakfast, then head to the track. I took the Path to the 7 train, which actually was a bit of a nightmare with all the crowds going to the US Open in Flushing.
My parents met me at the track to drop off the car with my track bike and some pop-tarts and then they headed out. The were planning on going somewhere in queens or something. I don't know, I don't pay attention to the details. I set up the tent, got dressed, warmed up a little, changed to my race gear, heard the lap bell. Once again, no warm up in race gear. Oh well, who needs it. The day dragged on enough that I don't think any amount of warming up before or between races would have helped anyhow.
Our first race in the 1/2/3's was an 800m Scratch. I really figured that was a typo as the other fields were doing 6- and 8-lap scratches, but not so much. Just two laps for us. Hooray sprinting. Andrew LaCorte showed up to race, so I knew he would be my main rival. As for the rest of the field, 10 people signed up, 6 of which were Pink Rhinos. I talked strategy with Charlie for a little bit and then with the team. We decided with a race this short, any strategy wasn't really worth it besides just keeping the pace nice and hot. That's basically how it played out. Steve drove a hard pace going into the bell lap, I attacked around turn 1, Andrew went past me on the back stretch and that was that. There was no catching up, either me to him or anyone else to me, so I rolled across the line in second.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/218614246
The next race was a 15 lap Points race with three sprints. The team originally discussed the idea of Keith and Steve going off the front to lap the field, but I suddenly started to worry about either LaCorte beating me in the field sprints or Dan Lim bridging up and leaving me in the dust. I decided it would be in my best interest to also try to lap the field with Steve and Keith, who were planning on attacking after the first sprint. As things turned out, the first few laps saw a couple of little attacks, including one by LaCorte. Around four laps in, I decided to counter on the backstretch. I kept on the gas until after the sprint, where I surveyed the damage. I had a small gap ahead of Dan, who had a gap ahead of the rest of the field. I sat up for Dan to catch up and we traded half lap pulls. Eventually Steve bridged up. I'm not sure if he was in no man's land the whole time or if he bridged from the field. Either way, now the three of us traded pulls. Dan's pulls were getting slower, and I was starting to worry about getting reeled back in. The pack was yo-yoing back and forth between a quarter and a little under a half-lap gap. On the second sprint lap, Dan was leading in turn 1, when I really started to feel like the pack was nipping at our heels, so I came up and around him to put some more of a gap between us. I didn't intend it as an outright attack, as I wanted the group to stay coherent, but it probably didn't come off that way. I know Steve at least thought I was putting in an attack. Either way, I hammered the rest of the lap to take the first place points again, then pulled up for Steve to pull through. We maintained this rotation through to the final laps, where Dan put in an attack, which I was able to catch and pass to take the final sprint. This put me in first place for the points. I think Dan got a well-deserved second, but I'm honestly not sure (more on not knowing who scored what later).
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/218614236
The final race was a 15 lap Scratch, with three primes. LaCorte sat this one out, as he was racing the Delroy Cup race afterwards in order to help Chris B defend his title. I talked with the team for a little bit, and we decided if they wanted to, Aaron and Lucas could try breaking away to take the primes and possibly the win. I was just going to mark Dan to stay ahead of him and potentially take any field primes that might be announced. In reality (plans and reality hardly ever seem to end up the same), I found myself boxed in within a few laps, right at the announcement of the first prime. Coming up along the outside was Dan, who got past the rhinos to take it. Boo. After this, the plan more-or-less came together, though. Aaron got away, but instead of going with Lucas, he went with Keith. I'm starting to think Keith is getting type-cast as the breakaway specialist extraordinaire. Which is by no means a bad thing. That's what I like about the team, we have such a broad talent base. It's the best. Pink Rhino rocks. But anyhow, back to business. After Aaron and Keith got a gap, Dan also attacked. I saw it and caught him right away. He knew the drill, so he just kept pedalling and I just kept sitting on his wheel. After a while, when it became clear we were permanently stuck between the first break and the main field, I put some work in. Around and around. I don't remember now if Dan gave up or if I attacked him. I'd have to imagine the former as I'm not a fan of three solo laps, but either way that's how the race ended. I tried catching up to Keith and Aaron, just for kicks, but I couldn't, so I rolled in for third. I think first and second went Aaron, Keith. They also got the two other primes. One each, I believe.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/218614231
This concluded my contribution to the day, so I sat with the rest of the team to cheer Brean on for the Delroy Cup race, which was a 20 lap scratch. Brean looked like he was really hurting from time to time, but on the second to last lap he was able to come from basically the back of the pack around everyone, bridge up to a solo rider off the front, then past and take the win. It was by far the most impressive win of the day and quite an upset for the sprinters in the group.
As for gearing today, the first race I did with a 51x15, the rest were my usual 50x15. After the races we took a few team photos since we had such a good showing. We also decided to invite Charlie D to the team as he's such a good guy, with a ton of advice. Other notable people in attendance were Tad, Dave Perry, Harry Z, Jason G, and both Lance and Mike M (both of which tell me they'll race again next year).
In regard to the results, however, Alan must have had some pressing business to attend to as he left right after the racing stopped. Admittedly, the day did go longer than I expected, so I'm not upset about that. The problem was that the omnium results were written down on note cards for Delroy to hand out the prizes and trophies, but most of the fields seemed to be completely wrong. The 1/2/3's for example had Aaron in first, me second, LaCorte third, but I definitely had the most points. I hear the Masters 40+ was also mixed up. I really just felt bad for Delroy as it was getting him pretty confused which put a damper on an otherwise great day of racing. Well, that and someone seems to have taken my cleat covers. Probably an honest mistake, but still a little annoying.
All in all, though, I had a great time with some great competition. Many thanks to Delroy for keeping up the Labor Day racing tradition. Thanks to all the racers and spectators. It was a full crowd, which really is a lot of fun. I'm really happy so many of us rhinos showed up for the last NY track race of the season. I can't wait for next year. It'll be exciting to watch Brean defend the cup. On a final note, I have to say it really was a treat to race with Dan today. He's a real classy rider. It's a shame we don't see him at the track much anymore, but I can understand where he's coming from with having to choose his weekday races.
I'll post the results when they finally get sorted.
EDIT: Preliminary results are out. http://kissenavelodrome.info/results/2012/2012LaborDayResults.pdf
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