Well the first track night of the season has come. I tried to make a conscious effort to worry less about how I might compare to everyone else, which I think worked. I still had a lot of jitters and nervousness beforehand. I wonder if that ever goes away.
I snuck out of work early to get to the track on time. The weather during the day could best be described as perfect. Warm, sunny, great. The drive to the track, however, saw a strange fog roll across from the south, which brought with it cold, damp, windy, weird weather. It made for a not-so-comfortable series of races.
The turnout was really good, with some notables being Mattie, JoshS, Aaron, Karl, Andy, Pete Rizzo, Robert, Phil and Chris, and most of the pink rhino ladies. The program was short and sweet due to a lack of light, which was fine by me.
I had enough time to do a decent warm up. Generally I wouldn't even mention it, but for two reasons this time. One, I actually recorded it with my garmin, so I need some kind of preface to the gconnect link. The second reason is that as I was rolling around, I saw some kind on the front of a paceline yell at some other kid to move up track. "UPTRACK! UPTRACK!!" Naturally, the guy who was already in the sprinters lane was completely confused and moved up track eventually, but I'm sorry, that's just not how it's done. If you're leading the pace line, it's your responsibility to move around the other riders on the track. Better luck next time.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/302870931
Race numero uno was a 3 lap scratch with full neutral lap. I was feeling a bit antsy, so I lined up first on the rail, lead the neutral lap, and then attacked right away. I felt good the first two laps, but I definitely felt like I was going backwards on the last lap. Fortunately, I was able to hold it with the exception of Karl passing me around turn 3 or 4 on the final lap. Still, 2nd place wasn't bad.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/302870921
Between each race, I would put my pants and hood-sweat back on, and basically cling to the ground for residual warmth. The asphalt felt wonderful.
Race two was a 9 lap points, with three sprints. My legs still felt dead from the first hard effort with the only warmdown being the horrible cold weather. I lined up at the front on the rail again, but then Andy pulled up right in front of me. I was able to win the first sprint, but then on the backstretch of that next lap an attack went, which I just couldn't respond to. I was stuck in no man's land with Adreas, who was completely content with not bridging up. This is kind of funny, because had he helped me bridge, he definitely could have gotten some good points and probably came in second. Instead, he was only able to pick up a handful of fourth place points which put him in fourth overall. My first sprint was good enough for third.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/302870915
The final race was a Chariot. Since we had about 16 people in our field, we split into two qualifying heats and one final. I switched to my 14t on the disc for the chariots, which I'm still not sure if it was smart or not. I never felt on top of the gear, but I was going fast. Robert was my holder/pusher for both chariots, with a push so good I probably could have gotten by without pedaling at all.
Here's the first heat. I had a little gap the whole way around to win.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/302870910
The final saw Josh fly past me between turns 1 and 2, which I clawed back slightly, but in the end he got it and I came in second again.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/302870905
This concluded the racing. Karl won the omnium, and I came in second, with Andy in third. Now those are some good results.
http://kissenavelodrome.info/results/2013/Kissena13TwilightSeriesWeek1.pdf
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