RR: Get Ready For Summer #4

Sunny, warm (75F), some wind, and lots of pollen in the air.
W4s had 9 entered plus 2 mentors.

I've only raced a couple of times in the past 9 months, so I was pretty nervous going in. I do a warm up in the warm-up gear and my legs feel OK, but when I do a couple of jumps (stand up and sprint), my IT band/quad/ham side of my knee hurts when I stand.  Not really painful hurt but enough that it bugs me.  Change to race gear and do another 5 minutes and a couple more jumps and the same.  Not happy at all about this, plus, I had in the back of my mind the fear of riding in a group and almost talked myself out of racing.  Annabell reminded me that I needed to have gearing under 85 inches since most of the women were on rental bikes (and therefore riding 81 or 84" gears) so I changed gears to 47x15 (84.6").  

Race #1:  10 lap tempo
Points to the first two across line every lap. No points for anyone else.

The race took off like a shot and stayed fast.  We split into two groups about 1.5 laps in, fast as hell and not as fast. I was in the not as fast group and there was a little trouble getting a paceline going but we finally did.  I got gapped in the last 2 laps, but then in the bell lap people were starting to die and I picked it up and passed at least three people in the final 200 meters.  6th place.  My sprint is coming back!

Coughed up a lung post-race. Still coughing this morning!

Race #2:  12 lap scratch
The race again started off super fast (26 mph).  Annabell told me to hang on and it would slow down.  I got gapped a bit but it did slow down a couple laps later and I got back on and sat in the back for a bit. With three and a half laps to go, people moved up track and I had the pole lane wide open in front of me and I moved up to the front of the pack in the pole lane.  I was thinking that it was three laps to go and I didn't want to be in the pole the entire three laps, but there was someone next to me so what was I going to do.  We were on the back stretch and I hear bikes hitting the ground pretty close behind me so I stomp the pedals in case something is coming forward and get the heck out of there.  Three down with one broken collarbone.  We had a 40 minute break for the ambulances to come and once we got going again, they restarted us with 3 laps to go.  Again I had no jump when people went, but once I got rolling, I chased down Evan to nip her at the line and take 5th. 

Race #3:  Win & Out
I totally screwed this one up! 
5 laps then a bell lap and the first across wins; everyone else continues racing and another bell and the first across gets second; another bell and then it's racing for the remaining places.
I hung in the 5 laps and then on the first bell lap two people got away and one had a good gap and won.  Next bell we were coming up on the second person who had gotten away but she held on and took second.  For some reason, I thought we had yet another lap to go so I didn't sprint in the last lap, but was sitting on Evan's hip as I'd planned to sprint once we got around to turn 3 again. Well, race over.  I could have easily been at least one place higher. Note to self: PAY ATTENTION!

Race #4:  Points (10 laps/pts every 5)
Thought about skipping this race as I was really tired.  But, I started the race and after the first sprint, my legs didn't have it so I just rode the remaining 5 laps to finish and get my omnium point.

Omnium:  Not in the top 5. 

I was pretty tired last night, but feel pretty good today.  I just don't have the hard racing miles in my legs yet, but I feel pretty good with how I rode.  The coach has put Wednesday night racing on the schedule, so I'll get some racing miles in.