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What Richard saw:
Category: Various
Result: Various
Pritpal and I rode some individual events at Track Districts today and
we came away with some medals.
Masters 30-34 Kilo - 3 laps, standing start.
This was the first event and I almost didn't ride this as I was tempted
to ride the senior points race on Friday night for some serious speed
work. However, given the toasting the legs were likely to get from Larry
Nolan et al., logic prevailed.
Instead, I got down to the track this morning in time to do a nice
warm-up including a little LT effort before changing up gears and doing
a couple of starts and a flying lap at race speed to confirm that I was
comfortable on the aerobars. A minor tweak of my pads during the warm-up
improved things mightily. Matt the coach arrived to help out up while I
was changing my gears.
My ride went pretty smoothly. I kept out of the saddle for most of the
first lap, only settling into the aerobars going into turn 4. I was
concentrating a lot on my breathing and forced myself to take full
breaths. I deliberately kept lap 2 steady to let myself settle after the
starting effort. Going into lap 3 Matt was shouting at me to kick it,
and I buried myself in turn 2. My effort died just short of the
finishing line meaning that I had timed it about right.
Matt timed me at about 1m16.3s - a considerable improvement on my ride
last year (1m18.22s). Then came the wait for the results. Pritpal's ride
was good enough for 3rd. That left it between me and Forrest Koenig, and
Forrest got second... I am the 2004 Masters 30-34 Kilo District Champion!
Senior 4km pursuit - 12 laps, standing start.
Matt asked me what time I would ride and I said 5m30s. The aim was to
have a steady start and settle into a constant pace at around 27s per
lap. I did a very steady start of 31s for the first lap, a bit slower
then planned, but settled very nicely. Matt's splits for me show a
steady 27s per lap schedule. On the last lap, I tried to pick it up, the
legs protested a lot and I didn't feel quicker, but my last lap was
quicker, and I finished with 5m29.8s beating my time of last year by 10s
(the posted time from last year on the NCVA website should read
5m39.63s). I was last of those who rode the 4km, but pleased at
improving my personal best by 10s.
Masters 30-34 3km pursuit - 9 laps, standing start.
I had very little time to recover after my 4km effort before riding this
race. I started as planned with a quicker first lap of about 29s and my
second laps was on schedule. However, my legs were toast and I got
progressively slower each lap and there was nothing I could do about it.
My time of around 4m08s was good enough for 3rd, but nothing special.
Pritpal did 4m04s and got second.
Masters 30-34 points race - ~25km, 75 laps.
I looked after myself after the pursuits, eating well and resting hoping
that the legs would recover enough for me to defend my silver from last
year. Various masters groups were run together and the numbers in the
field justified 75 laps, run in the heat of the day at 3:45pm.
I was competitive in the early sprints, getting a second then a first
and gaining the early lead. I then began to pay attention to my
competitors and only contest sprints if they were doing so. Several
times I therefore sat them out as the points were taken by other categories.
Alden Tanaka (in my age-group) had some to this race fresh, and after
the first few sprints, he made a concerted attempt to drop me. I wasn't
letting this happen and had to dig deep to stay with him. What he was
successful in doing however was getting a group of us off the front.
Pritpal played the team mate in the bunch and blocked which helped up to
get away.
There was some mis-communication and inexperience in our break about
what to do at the sprints and I am guilty of being a little unsporting.
After Mike Audley had words with us, we tried to share the points more
equitably as we had almost gained our lap and were keeping the bunch in
sight so we could keep the points to ourselves (greedy!).
George Meilan broke the truce and Mike decided it was time to try to
drop him, attacking the break and getting up to the bunch. Alden was hot
on his wheels and I had to dig deep to bridge, but I managed it. Cool,
lap gained, another 20 laps towards the cause. Pity Alden was there too.
It was clear to me at this point that Alden was my competition and that
though I had had the legs to beat him early on, his legs were fresher
and it was going to be tough. How true. He kept attacking and I kept
chasing, never letting him get too far away.
At 30 laps to go, I began to get the shivers. Oh dear, this is not good.
I will just have to hang on and suffer through it. They only got worse,
but I hung in there. After the sprint at 10 laps to go, Art Walker
called to me that I was down 7 points to Alden. No real surprise. Well,
there are 2 sprints left, and I have to go for it.
At the sprint with 5 to go, I attacked hard. Alden challenged on my hip
and I was digging deep, but felt myself losing ground. Suddenly, like a
guardian angel, there was Pritpal on my shoulder boxing in Alden and I
dug even deeper and got the sprint with Pritpal taking the points for
second. The difference was then down to 4 points. I could do it by
winning the final sprint and Alden not getting any points.
Remember those shivers? They then caught up with me big time. The effort
to win at 5 to go was the last one I had and I got dropped meaning I was
unable to contest the final sprint and was second to Alden in the 30-34
race. Pritpal, patrolling the bunch, took enough points to get third.
Wow, that was one hard ride.
Our final tally for today: Pritpal - 2 bronze, 1 silver; Richard - 1
bronze, 1 silver, 1 gold.
On Sunday we will be riding the Masters sprint tournament and I think I
will ride the senior 15km scratch race to finish the weekend off with
some serious speed work.
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