RR: Masters' Track Nationals - Day 3

Sprint day!

They way the sprints work is everyone does a flying 200 meters for time first thing, then they seed the tournament from the times. I was 9th to go in the morning, so I got to the track early and did a pretty good warm up on the track--25 minutes in the warm up gear with a couple of jumps, then change to the race gear and do another 20 minutes with two more jumps. Hop on the rollers, stay loose until it's time to go to the ready. I was about the 8th person to go.

For the flying 200, they give you a push off on the back straight when the previous person passes on the way to their finish. You get 2.5 laps and the last 200 meters is timed. I rolled out and had gone through this in my mind many times the night before and during the warm up. Stay near to above the blue line the first 3/4 lap, then head up towards the rail and start to pick up the speed. On the second time around, get it rolling and up hill going into turn 2, keep the pressure on the pedals, then get to turn 3 and stand up and hit it, standing as long as possible. Take the corner a little late, which I did, but maybe too late. The corners in Colorado are tight, so I've been having a hard time keeping the bike down at the bottom of the curve and today was no different. Too high (which means losing time). Keep pedaling all the way across the line. I felt like it was a decent effort, but when the announcer said, 14.74 seconds, I was not happy at all. That equalled my best 200m time but I was expecting faster. I groused about it to the coach and of course everything he said was right (thanks Kenny), so all I could do was sit and wait to see where I was (as I had gone first). I ended up seed 5th of 6 (we started with 7, with one scratch). It was then another long wait until they decided how they would run my AG. The decision was for #1-4 to go straight to the evening's semifinals and #5-6 would have a one-ride final for the last podium spot. 

Back on the rollers to stay loose, ride around the warm up circle, sit and hydrate (as it was hot and sunny--my preferred weather!)  Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Finally, they called us to the ready. For the match sprint, you draw for position--#1 or #2. If you are #1, you have to obligation to lead things out. Since my qualifying time was quite a bit faster than the other gal's time, Kenny and Curtis gave me a few options of things to do. The official had her draw and she drew #2, so that made me #1. Her holder placed her bike fairly low on the track and Kenny told him to move it up as she was #2. (#1 has the lower spot on the track and #2 is higher.)  I saw him grimace and they weren't very happy with that. Good for me! I got on the bike and sat up, finally getting down into the drops and the official blew the whistle and Kenny gave me a push. I immediately went up above the blue line and kept going up higher into the corner as I was pretty sure she would not like that at all. Plus, I slowed way down, which I don't think she liked either. Continue nice and slow out of turn 2 and then pick it up a little. Uphill into turn 3 taking her really high and just past the midpoint between turns 3 and 4, I shot down the banking (which seems like falling off a building), standing up and sprinting as hard as I could, and I kept sprinting for the rest of the race. I took a peek back coming out of turn 4 and didn't see her, but I kept pedaling like mad until I heard Kenny say to shut it down. But I've been beaten in other sprints by letting up in the last 50 meters, so I did not want it to happen here! Win and 5th place for me, which meant the podium!  Standing on the podium tonight was SWEET!!

Thanks Coach.

Thanks Annabell for all the advice and for making me play follow the leader on the track yesterday. It helped.

Thanks Kevin for putting on the sprint tournament series. Match sprinting is like chess on bikes and it takes a lot of practice. The sprint tournaments are a great way to try out new things.

Thanks to all the Hellyer folks who were out there cheering today. What a fun week this has been. I'm already thinking about next year.

Thanks to my boys for all the trips to Hellyer this year. The best part of my week.