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What Richard saw:
Category: A
Result: Mid-pack
There were four of us at the track this evening: myself, Scott, Brad and
Charlie, one in each group. I'll let the others describe their racing.
Today was the first evening outing for both the loaner pair of trispokes
I have acquired and my recently shaved legs. I am now able to do a more
typical two-stage warmup, with the first being on my own rear wheel with
a 16 cog to get the legs spinning and then switching to the trispoke
with a 15 cog for the later warm-up and racing.
In the second part of my warm-up, Scott and I did a few quick laps and
then a few jumps. I liked the way my legs felt in the warmup - when I
asked them to go, they were able to go.
First race for the A's was a 15 lap scratch race. Danny Holloway went
off the front early on, but we chased him down. Then Gen Kogure went off
the front and we basically held him for a while. The bunch sat up at one
point and I decided to jump across to Gen. We worked well together
attempting to stay away, but were caught with 2 laps to go.
The second race for us was a tempo (points each lap, 2 & 1). Early on
Danny Holloway and Gary Yakota got off the front and started to take the
points. For some reason, I decided that I wanted to be up there with
them and spent over a lap bridging up to them. I surprised myself during
my bridge - this was the first time I was able to really get on top of
the 50x15 gear this year, and I flew across to them. When I got there,
they thought I had the bunch in tow and sat up until I said, "It's just
me," at which point we worked together and stayed away until the end.
Naturally, I got third and am very pleased with my first ever A omnium
points.
Third for us was an unknown win-and-out in which not just the location
of the first bell was unknown, but also the second and third. I got 5th.
Next was a W-I-N race, where each lap a letter from "win" is awarded
randomly. If you get W-I-N in any order you win and are out. Thoroughly
confusing - I managed 4th, somehow.
As the evening progressed, there was wastage in the A's which reduced
our field to 5 for our final event (a 5 lap scratch race), where I came
in 5th. However, the full field was present for the tempo race so that
is the race I am most happy with. I was able to bridge across to a
couple of fast riders and help to keep the escape away. I have yet to
decide whether that was due to fitness, the shaved legs or the trispokes.
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What Brad saw:
Category: C
Result: Mid-pack
As Richard said, we had four of us at the track (and charlie, scott)....it was a lot of fun. Richard was the star of the evening, as he looked really strong in his "A" group, and got some solid points. His email tells the tale.
I felt ok tonight, but not 100% focused or confident. I chose some horrible lines, and knew it every second while doing it. The problem is, I have some serious vision issues, and track racing especially at night-time is my worse-case race scenario. The reduced light makes me tentative and slower than most riders in moving left or even right (the velodrome lights aren't nearly as bright as night-time baseball or football stadium lighting, and daylight for me is much better anyway). So, I tend to get stuck out in the wind or high up on a bank, and don't feel comfortable dropping down and squeezing in. This is why i stay "above the stairs" more than I should. I'm working on it.
I cut someone off tonight, and got gently reprimanded for that, and then in my favorite race, the snowball, someone got screwy somewhere to my right, i heard some shouts, and i no doubt over-reacted in getting the hell out of the way by dropping down almost to the grass, which really got the adrenaline pumping. And for my third story on myself....the team gave me a standing ovation as I impressively won the "bonus" lap on a race -- too bad the race was over the lap before! %$#*@^$#*! Even the ref -- Art -- was duly "impressed" on how determined i was to win the cool-down lap!!! Jeez guys....you expect me to watch the competition, the track, cycle to the point of oxygen debt, AND to pay attention to the bell and lap cards too?!?!?
Still, in spite of it all, I snared a few points (real points!) in two different races, so I didn't go away empty-handed. At least for me, it was all about the camaraderie tonight -- watching our boy Richard put on a nice show, cheering on newly-upgraded Scott (from C to B), and shouting words of encouragement to Charlie.
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