RR: Get Ready For Summer #1 (Velodrome)

Today was the first official day of racing at the track--Get Ready for Summer, 4 races and people were split into A, B, and C groups. A=Pro, Cat. 1 and stronger 2s, B=Cat. 2 and 3 and C=Cat. 4 and 5 and track beginners, so a strong rider will start out as a C, but may get moved up quickly to a B if he isn't a crap rider. Sometimes women and juniors get our own race. Not today, mixed sex for Cs and Bs.

I got there and warmed up for about 20 minutes in the warm up gear. I then flipped my wheel to the other cog (bigger gear). My coach told me to use 88" gearing today (for a comparison, Mr. Harrington, had he been there would have been at least 90, if not 92, I'm guessing. I must have been confused as to what gearing I had on, well, actually, I didn't really think about it, and did another 10 minutes with 2x100m efforts (sprint as hard as you can from a very slow start). Felt pretty good! Weather was low 60s and a little breezy on the backstraight (I had arm warmers on, no leg warmers and later shed the arm warmers).

First race was the keirin (you get a push into the start and ride behind the motorcycle for 5 laps, then with 1.5 laps to go, the motor pulls off and it's a drag race to the finish. Position #1 at the start has the responsibility to take first position behind the motor). I was in Group C which had 15 people, 3 junior girls (two are fairly strong riders and the other I rode with most of last year), Katie--Cat. 3 on the road, me, +65 year old Joe , another guy who I raced with a lot last year, some girl I don't know, then about 7 guys, all new to racing on the track (one was one of my teammates). They had split us into 2 heats and I was in there with Gerry, two strong guys and two juniors and another guy. I drew 5th spot and Johnny, my holder, gave me a great start and I slotted in 3rd behind the motor (15 mph to start, ramping up to 25 mph). I sat easily behind the first two guys and felt good, even when we got up to when the motor pulled off. I stayed third until right before the last time into turn 3 and then Gerry came around me and he and the other two guys got a gap, but I held on for 4th in the heat. Last year I would have been last and off the back the minute the motor pulled off. Actually, I would have been last off the start line and maybe never caught up to the group. So I was pretty happy with the race.

Afterwards, I look at my gearing and oops, it was 92 inches, not 88! But it felt good and no wonder I was hanging in! But Tim loaned me a 49 chainring and he put on the 15 cog, so I had the 88" for the rest of the day like I was supposed to. For some reason, I thought that since I didn't get top 2 in my heat, then I was finished with keirin, but then Matt is reading the list for the rep round and I hear my name and crap, get on the bike and get ready! I forgot about the rep rides to try and get to the final. John was again my holder and I pulled #1 position. Not my favorite place to be. Another decent start though and I tried to let unknown girl take the motor, but no, I had to take it. Again, sitting on the motor wasn't too bad, even with the smaller gear. When the motor pulled off, I picked it up some, but couldn't hold it the lap and a half. Not sure where I finished, but not last. So much better than any time last year!!!  But no keirin final for me.

Next race was scratch race, 15 laps (at the end of 15 laps, first across the line wins). 15 C riders to start. Well, from the get-go, this was a totally sketchy race with some questionable riding. After about 5 laps I didn't like the way things were going and had a bad feeling, so I slid to the back and off the track and went up to Rick and said I wasn't going to race with some of those guys and put my bike up and went to go to the bathroom. I'm outside the fence on the way to the bathroom and shit, CRASH. I KNEW IT! Two ambulances and tonight Joe is in surgery. Hope he's OK.

Anyway, after a long delay, they re-do the C scratch race and I get talked into getting back in it after seeing who was actually going to race. It was shortened to 5 laps, so it was fast from the gun and there were only about 8 or 9 of us. My legs were dead from sitting around so long and Taylor and I got spit out the back after about 3 laps, so we just rode it in.

Next race: Miss-n-Out. After one lap to start, the race is on and each time across the finish line, the last person across [measured by the BACK wheel] is out of the race. When you get to the last 3 people, it's a 2 or 3 lap sprint for 1st, 2nd and 3rd (I forget as I've never gotten this far....YET!) The number of total laps will depend on how many people are in the race. We had 9 starters and my goal was to not be the first person out. We rolled out and I rode just inside the sprinters line (down towards the bottom of the track) which meant no one could come underneath (inside) me and on the first out, I was placed well, probably first across the line. Next time around, OK, still in, cross in top half of group. The third time around, Kira went around me and got in front of me and I got boxed in down on the inside and just barely got nipped at the line since I couldn't sprint since there was someone in front and to the right of me, with out of bounds to the left. So, 7th out of 9. Happy with that, but not happy with getting boxed in. Next time I'll try a different tactic.

Last race: Points race. Due to the crash and delay, our race got shortened to 12 laps, points (sprint) every 4th lap, down from 15 laps and points every 5. How it works is that points are given to the first 4 across the line for each sprint--5 points for 1st, 3 for 2nd, 2 for 3rd and 1 for 4th, then add the points at the end and whomever has the most points, wins. Lap the field, gain +20 points, get lapped, -20 points. The people who were left were all pretty fast so my goal was to just hang on and see how long I could stay with the pack. First 3 laps were OK, then the bell and I'm hanging off the back but then there's a little gap in the wind and I couldn't close it. Taylor was even further back so she and I rode together the rest of the way, doing 1/2 lap exchanges, riding hard and we made it our goal to not let them catch and lap us. Goal accomplished.

Afterwards, cool down and swapped out the gears for tomorrow, then we went to a very late lunch. At the end of the day, the comment to me was, "You are riding SO much better this year."  I feel like I am too so I'm pretty happy.