Hello Yellow Dello Velo!
May 19th, 2007 |
Another boring race report to follow, skip now or forever hold your piece.
Things did not start off well for me tonight:
– I forgot my gear bag so the only gearing that would be available to me all night would be the one that was mounted on the bike.
– I also did not have the disk wheel valve adapter so I had to borrow one from (dis) pencer in order in inflate the tire on my rear wheel.
– I noticed that my right sock had some dirt stain on it which ruined my goal of running a clean kit.
– I finally got the rear wheel inflated and tucked back safely in its wheel bag. Ray and I were standing around making some idle chit-chat when some crazy noise emanated from the wheel bag. Then the wheel bag ballooned up before slowly deflating. I had no extra tubes so apparently I was not going to be using the disk wheel tonight. It was ok since it was so windy anyway, not a good wheel for the wind.
– My legs hurt. It takes me a week or so to break the legs in on the track bike so I won’t be feeling good for a bit yet. I took Baby Smithers out for a spin in the trailer this afternoon in the attempt to shake my legs loose but I was still tight upon my arrival to the track.
Other than that everything was sorta ok. During the course of the evening the temperature dropped about 40 degrees. That was kind of odd, no one had the clothing on had to keep warm between races. All the LGR team members kept warm by standing around Super Rookie and the massive amount of hot air that was being expelled from his mouth.
The first race of the evening was the Miss and Out. I once again executed my secret strategy which paid off for a 5th place finish by the end.
The second race was the keirin, one of my favorites. Super Rookie offered to give me the super sweet leadout for five dollars but I passed. Good thing too because he was unable to qualify for the finals. I was in the first heat and was putting a bit of pressure on The Old Man of the Track when he reached over and gave me a shove up the boards. It was totally awesome! I would much rather have someone push me out of the way in a keirin than some dude swing up on my wildly and try and crash me out. It really made the heat exciting. I was able to finish 4th in the heat and claim the last qualifying spot for the keirin finals. Big Joe got knocked out of the heat through no fault of his own. I felt bad for him so I went over and told him that I felt bad for him.
In the final I drew first position which meant I had to take the moto for the first lap. I decided to just stay on the moto after the first lap and take advantage of the draft but once the moto pulled off a bunch of dudes came by me like a ton of bricks. I was not able to go with them due to being under geared and generally sucky so I ended up 5th in the final.
An 80 lap points race finished the evening. They combined the 3’s and 2’s again so there was a nice big field for me to sit inside. It would have been nice to be able to put on a bigger chainring for this race but since I forgot my gear bag I was out of luck. Fairly early in the race a group of guys got off the front and lapped the field and they spent the rest of the race protecting their gained lap. I was getting pretty tired but kept it together long enough to win one of the point sprints. I probably finished the race in about 100th place.
I think Timmer made the upgrade from 4’s to 3’s so good on him.
Tuffy did not crash anyone once again tonight. He really seems to be on to something this year.
All the LGR’s sit around in the same spot of the infield. Sometimes they huddle up before the racing starts. I think they need to come up with a team cheer.
Ray loved my new keirin gloves. Now I know what to get him for his birthday present.
No Ped tonight, he was off mountin’ bike. Every racer and spectator asked me where he was. Skibby called him my little lamb and someone else called him my better half. Phht, I am totally his better half.
On the drive home I had a yummy Sunkist soda pop and a rather revolting protein bar.
That’s about all that I can remember.
BTW, this is the Yellow Dello.
