Category: A
Result: Back of pack

This evening's track racing was devoted to the Madison for the A group. We had a good turn-out in the A's, with 7 teams signing up for the Madison events. Pritpal and I were there in FFBC colours.

The aim of the evening was for everyone to stay upright. Sound's easy, but with exchanges happening in the middle of a pack, the potential for a stack is high with riders moving sideways into and out of the pack along with their speeds changing significantly due to the transfer of momentum.

To get us used to exchanges at speed, first up was a Madison pursuit time trial. Here we could make exchanges at speed without having to worry about other riders. We missed our first exchange - I wasn't ready for the difference in our speeds and everything happened too quickly. However, the rest of the exchanges went well and we got used to transferring a large amount of momentum during the exchange. Unfortunately, we were the slowest of the 7 teams in the pursuit.

Next was a Madison proper, 24 laps with sprints every 8. The Madison is a race with a distinct rhythm: work hard, exchange and slow rapidly in the process, climb the banking, rest, come off the banking and pick up speed, prepare for the exchange, get thrown in and work hard... repeat. All this happens in the time it takes to do two laps of the track. For Pritpal and me, today was all about getting used to how the Madison feels, and I think we got the hang of it pretty well for beginners. After what seemed like no time at all, the race was over.

We then had a miss-and-out by way of a diversion (I was the first rider eliminated this time) followed a little later by our final event, a 32 lap Madison. Early on, Pritpal was in the right place to contest the first sprint, so we got some points in the race. We got our rhythm going again and I enjoyed the boost I got each time Pritpal threw me in on the home straight. I was able to spin quickly and get on the wheel of the rider in front. A few more training events like this and we'll be able to think about things like actually racing.

Another fun evening at the track.

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