Track Night Wrap Up
May 31st, 2007 |
After getting demolished last Tuesday night on the Urthel ride I did not expect great things to happen for me tonight. I would end up being pleasantly surprised.
The first race of the evening was the Tempo Race. I pretty much just rode around and tried to stay at the front. I ended up collecting some points that resulted in a 5th place for the event and I was happy to be rolling as well as I was, but the Tempo Race is never a great event for me.
Next up was the Miss and Out. I was once again able to put my super top secret strategy in play to stay in the race until close to the end. With 7 or so guys left in the pack The Old Man of the Track attacked off the front in order to avoid any of the unpleasantries of elimination. He stayed about 50 meters off the front for a good long time while the rest of us fought it out during each elimination. We did not catch him until the final elimination so it was a good move. I was able to sneak around him to make it to the final three but I was no match for the acceleration of Crosby and Winger so I ended up with 3rd place in the event.
The final event was the 60 laps Points Race. The first 20 laps or so I was not too good, pretty much just rolling around towards the back hoping that I was going to be able to stay in until the end. After the 3rd sprint I made an attack that failed and the followed it with another attack a few laps later. I made a pretty hard effort to stay off the front but was happy with Skidsy and The Old Man of the Track caught me as they were plenty ready to put in some work. There was a moment when they came by me that I didn’t think I was going to be able to stay with them, but I dug deep and knew that if I recovered a little bit that I would be ok. The three of us worked in great rotation, each of us pulling for half a lap. We spent the rest of the race about 100 meters off the front of the field, splitting up the points between the three of us during the sprint laps. With a few laps to go Crosby and a couple of other strong riders were able to bridge up to us and Skidsy fought out the final sprint with them. I only had enough strength to roll in at that point but I had acquired enough points to finish 3rd in the event.
Being off the front in a race like that is super hard and very painful but it is very rewarding on a personal level. Any chance that I get to get away from the group I will take advantage of regardless of how I end up in the race. The group is usually pretty motivated to bring back a break so it takes a lot of work to keep them at bay. But it is really satisfying to have the race blow apart due to your hard work rather than have things come down to another boring field sprint.
So with a 5th place, 3rd place and 3rd place I ended up 3rd overall in the omnium. Not too shabby! Any time that I can finish in the top 5 in the omnium I am super stoked.
So now I am super stoked. I am also super tired and am going to bed now.
