RR: Proman Omnium Track Event

"People ask what we do - you say you are on the track for two-and-a-half hours and you did four efforts that lasted five seconds, and it's hard to grasp,"__from an article about the British track team that someone forwarded.

Boy is that the truth! Today it was more like 10 hours at the track for 5 races. But I wouldn't have wanted to be any other place in the world.

Friday was the Davis Crit, which was a hard 45 minute effort in the heat. Saturday was a sprint clinic at the track. I probably rode only 10-12 miles, but only did 2 flying 200s and two match sprints. So some very hard efforts and a lot of warm up and cool down. Spent the night down in San Jose Saturday night so I didn't have to drive back to SF and then be able sleep in before today's race.

Proman Omnium (5 races per group and only 3 groups)

Masters Men (+45)

Elite Men (including pro Ben Jacques Maynes)

Elite Women (and our ages ranged from about 18 to 60 and included the USA U23 champion in the 500m and a few Cat. 2s, with the rest being Cat. 3s and 4s)

The women's races were (1) flying 200 meters; (2) 10 lap scratch race; (3) 2K TT; (4) 30 lap points race (which became a 20 lap points race due to time issues, with points every 5 laps); and (5) 500m TT. Scoring was like a cross-country race, lowest total wins. You had to race all 5 races for omnium consideration.

Yesterday at the sprint clinic, my 200 times had been slow and I was not at all happy with them (15.98 and 16.10). Today's time was 15.36 (I think). It was a big drop. Not sure what I did different, but I felt a lot better today. Still, I was about 11th out of 12.

Scratch race: Roll off the rail and after half a lap, the bell rings and we are racing. And the speed ramped up fast and the pack was tight and I was right in there in the middle of it! We went around turn 2 and I remember thinking, "We are going FAST and this is aggressive!" It stayed that way for 10 laps and I was able to stick with the pack the entire 10 laps, which is a first. Got out sprinted by everyone in the last 50 meters, but I finished with a huge smile since I was able to hang! It was damned hard, but a total adrenaline rush. DAMN!

Then followed a LONG break to sort out the scores and do the pursuit rankings. Way too long of a break. Finally, we got things going again and I was first up in the 2K against Doritt. The 2K is a time trial from a dead stop with a holder. I'd asked my friend Gio how to ride this one and he said the main thing is, don't start out too fast. Six laps of pain--don't think about your legs, just your breathing. "You can suffer." Hmm, OK. I started out and settled in and felt pretty good for 3 laps. Passed the start/finish line and timer Peter yelled, "halfway". Crap! There's a lot left! Had a little lag in lap 4 but picked it back up in lap 5 and rode as hard as I could in lap 6. Finished and thought I was going to fall off my bike. Super tired and hot and I went to the tent and laid down on the grass in the shade. Was really dreading the points race and was really happy to hear that it had been shorted from 30 to 20 laps. Not sure of my time but am curious to compare it to the one other 2K that I've done.

Points race: Roll off the rail and half a lap, the bell rings and we are racing. The speed was OK for about 3 laps, but then Beth W. takes off like a shot! The two junior girls get caught off guard (since it's about a lap early to go for the points) and then they take off and pretty much everyone else does and I fall off the wheel, but then Sabine and Doritt fall off the pack and I hop on Sabine's wheel until she pops, so I go around her with Doritt on my wheel and I hammer as hard as I can since I can see Donna, who is in no-man's-land, having fallen off the front group. I pull Doritt up to Donna and we spend the rest of the race working on a 3-gal paceline (since this might be 3/4 of the pursuit team at Districts). We kept up a good pace and worked OK together, so that was good. On the final sprint I got third out of our group of three, but wasn't far behind Doritt. Finished that race JACKED and like I could ride another 5 races! Not sure why I felt so much better with the difference of one race. But during the race, man, were my legs screaming.

500m TT: One and a half laps from a standing start. Plan was to just hammer it as hard as possible the entire way. Didn't get a very good start, but ramped it up and held on to the pace the rest of the way. Didn't get the time, so again, I'll be curious to see what it was and compare it to the one other 500 I've done. Talked to Gio afterwards and he said it looked like I was soft-pedaling the start. He then figured out that I was using my body weight on the pedals (like when you climb) and that's not the way to track start. So, something else to work on.

Finished the 500 and felt fantastic! Like, let's keep riding!!!! Instead, I changed out of my bibs and stripped off the jersey and went straight for the cooler and had a nice cold Fat Tire Ale. Actually, I had two. Watched the elite men do their 2 lap, standing start TT to get some tips on starting and the top 4 were FLYING!!! Pretty amazing.

I finished 10th and last (2 gals dropped out during the day), but felt I took a pretty good jump today in both confidence and the ability to suffer and hang on, plus, I got to ride my bike fast and hang with friends and spend the day in the heat and sunshine (instead of complaining about the summer weather in SF), so it was a pretty darned good day.