Back Racing....FINALLY!!!

 It's been 34 weeks or 238 days or 5712 hours or 342,720 minutes or 20,563,200 seconds since I've last raced. Not that I'm counting or anything! The Coach finally said I could race, so it was off to San Jose to the velodrome! And today was a ~perfect~ day for riding a bike in circles.  Warm (low 70s to start up to mid 70s), sunny and breezy at the track when we got there. 

The Get Ready for Summer series are four Saturdays in the spring, each day having 4 short races for each category and there are 3 separate categories. Got signed in and got my number for the season (lucky #707) and got on the track for warm up.  Since I've only been on the track twice in the past 7.5 months, I had no idea what to expect today. My goals going in were just ride and see how it went.  Test out my knee. Have fun.  

I did 25 minutes warm up in the small gear that I've been riding on the rollers all winter. Very small--like even smaller than junior gears, but it's been good for me to learn to ride a higher cadence. That gear felt pretty good.  Also, I had my new wheels on and this would be the first test for them. The entire warm up I was thinking how FUN it was to be riding my bike on the track. People kept riding up and saying hello and asking how I felt. I realized today that I've missed going down there every week.

Flipped the wheel to a bigger gear and did 10 more minutes, then it was time to come off the track and get ready for the first race.

Race 1:  Keirin

"Oh hell! I'm going to get thrown in." That was my thought when I realized what the first race would be. Keirin is a 6 lap race behind the motorcycle (or the little keirin bike in a official real keirin). There are 6 riders per heat and you line up across the track after drawing for position. You have a holder and on the start whistle, your holder throws/pushes you forward. I found John and asked him to be my holder and told him I didn't want a big throw and maybe delay just a second. I just wanted to get on the back of the line and just get this race over with. I was in heat 3 with two other women and 3 guys and I drew position #6. That was probably the best draw--not in the middle and not obligated to take the motor if I were #1.  I had a decent start (I remembered to pedal!) and I slotted in 5th of 6. Peter took us up to 25 mph before he pulled off and then with 1.5 laps left, two guys got a gap. I hung on to riders #3 and #4 for about 1/2 lap and then they pulled away. I was pedaling for all I was worth but couldn't hold the wheel. The first two went straight to the final and #3/4 went to the rep ride and after they got a good gap, I sat up and rolled in. since 5th or 6th gets you nothing.  So, I was relieved that the first race was over with no issues and happy with how I rode. 29.78 mph max which comes out to about 117 cadence. Not bad!

Race 2: 10 lap Scratch

Field of 19, maybe 8-9 women.  I end up towards the back when we lined up on the wall. Goal for this race was to stick with the pack as long as possible.  It started pretty fast and in a few laps, I got gapped and lost contact so I took a lap and got back in when they came around and was able to hang in a little better. Finished in the back of the field but I felt pretty good. Definitely need to work on riding higher cadence for longer stretches.

After the scratch race I decided to change to a bigger gear since I was WAY under-geared. So I changed to a 48x15 which still isn't that big, but it was better, I think.

Race 3: Miss & Out

Field of 19. Too many in my opinion and I didn't have a good vibe so I rode at the back and was the first one called out (by choice). I was rolling around the warm up circle and the sound you don't want to hear..crash.  Three ambulances. Shit! Not sure what happened as I was on the opposite side of the circle facing the other way. 

Long delay and then a re-start on our race but I didn't restart.

Race 4: 10 lap Points

This got shortened by 5 laps due to time constraints. The bigger gear felt pretty good! I started towards the back and then was on the outside and when the sprint came, I got gapped from the main group but had blue/white kit guy fairly close and at least one or two behind me. Things came back together for a few laps and I thought about attacking just to see if I could get a gap, but trying to go high and around, the door got slammed and I didn't want to try to squeeze through so I sat near the back. The sprint came and the top 4 got a gap, but I stayed with the next group and I saw 115 cadence, so that's 29 mph. Pretty happy with this.

Cooled down a little and packed up and drove back to SF. My knee was a little stiff when I got home, but that's from sitting in the truck for an hour. I'll see how it feels tomorrow, but tonight it feels pretty good. And it didn't hurt at all riding. GOALS MET!

Thanks Rick, Matt and Michael for a fun day. And healing vibes to Lala, Mr. Y and the other rider. Hope you all are back on the bike soon.