Saturday, May 14, 2011

First track race of 2011

The preseason racing at the Marymoor velodrome has officially started and the first races were last night.

It went about as well as I expected and was a great test of my form and reintroduction to the track. I didn't do anything special but the main thing is that I relearned a whole bunch of stuff.

The action didn't really start until the last race; the 5x5 points race. The points race is one of my favorite races so I was pretty excited to race one again. The first couple of sprints were like normal and then a breakaway happened. It was a big one and they had a giant gap forming. I didn't really worry since about 90% of the time a breakaway doesn't stay out and gets pulled right back in. Not this time; we didn't organize soon enough to real them back in. I made a couple of attacks in the hopes that people would take chase but all that would happen is that they would slow down when I pulled off. Feeling pretty tired I sat up and went to the back for a bit of a rest; hoping that someone would turn up the throttle. Finally I made an attack and found myself in the middle of nowhere. Figuring that it was all or nothing now I put the hammer down and tried my best to make contact. I was all in and put in more effort than I knew I had in me this early in the season. My legs were searing and the commentator was cheering me on as I edged closer and closer but by the time I was just over half way there the race was over and I got nothing for my efforts. I'm pretty sure that I could have made it if I wasn't so under geared (should have been at 90 gear inches as apposed to 86) and will be changing that for next week.


In other news; I now have a pair of Easton EC90 wheels on order and should be here soon. I'm excited to be finally upgrading my wheels. New wheels is probably the single biggest upgrade I can make right now. I'm hoping that Ill be able to get a new track frame in the near future though. I may or may not get a new road bike before that though. Much to contemplate and much to be excited about.


Picture from Dennis Crane

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