Thursday, July 19, 2007

another night of track hack..

Although it didn't start until the ride home.

Yesterday was a great day of track racing! I can say that objectively because I won a box of cliff bars! I also came in first in the "C2" omnium, so that is awesome. I also feel like shit today, so that is not awesome. Bike hangovers suck. Anyway, to the races--

Scratch Race: This was 8 laps. I jumped before the last lap. It seems everyone always waits for the bell to ring to pick it up, so I moved before that. It worked and I got a gap and won. I think some guy was behind me, but best to look forward and not back, so I didn't turn around. I am not sure how close he was.

3 lap Scratch Races: Here they broke the C2 group in half. The top 2 in each heat would qualify for the final. So, I decided I would do my best to place 2nd in the first heat. We were going kind of slow and I was sleeping and almost didn't get second, but luckily I got a kick at the end. In the final there were only three of us for some reason. Anyway, I totally missed the first guy jump like a ninny. [clarification: he didn't jump like a ninny, i was a ninny for missing it. misplaced modifier.] I drafted off the second guy hoping he'd pull me up, but he wasn't cooperating with my plan, so the last lap I cranked it and caught up to the guy with the gap and almost beat him at the line but didn't. Shucks. Someone after the race said when I am coming out of the final turn I shouldn't "go up track" so much and I wasted time/distance by doing that and maybe could've won.

Miss 'n Out: This was my first track race ever at the end of June, and I hoped not to do as shitty as that (where I was the 2nd or 3rd person eliminated). I learned my lesson to stay on the outside. I was doing pretty good. Right after an elimination (there were 5 of us left) someone I think must have hit my back wheel cause I heard a scrape of my spokes (or something else) and felt something hit my left quad. I gave out the infamous: "woah!" and someone said: "way to hold it," or something like that. This rattled me for the rest of curve and half the straight away, but no time to get rattled cause I didn't want to miss! Phew, another lap - down to 4. I kinda blew it on the next lap; we were all lined up across the line, and I didn't gun it enough. I was bummed because after that we had a neutral lap and would race for the win. Mike told me I should gun it especially when you are down to four cause you get a rest lap after that. Good point! Although I didn't place well on this event, I did much better than last time and was happy I didn't fall even with some bumping on the curve.

B/C Points Race: 25 laps, sprints every 5. This was going to be fast. I thought the C2 group was fast, and the C1s were faster. And the Bs faster still! Ooof. I held on last week, so I thought I'd try for a point this week. I thought the field might break up, so I figured I better go for a point early. As in the first one. With more than 1 to go I made a break, cause again it seemed good to do it before the bell as opposed to after. I was lucky and got a gap and came across the line first! I was pretty happy I got a point. The guy behind me then yelled at me, "Keep going!" I was thinking, "hell no i'm not pulling anymore!" and pulled up track and hopped on his wheel. I was gassed and knew I couldn't hold a break for 20 more laps. We held that break approximately one lap like I figured. After lap 10 sprint I was a bit worried I was going to get dropped, but I didn't. But I wasn't in a good place to get a point for 15. On 20, I was an idiot and sprinted for "fourth"-- I was stoked I got it, until I realized Grey and some other guy were on a break up track, so actually I was 6th. Stupid me. Anyway, didn't get any points for 25 either, just hung on. This was a fun race. I was happy to get some points early and happy to hang on the race of the race.

It was another great night at Hellyer-- people were all so nice to me giving me pointers. THANKS! Kinda shittin' my pants for this weekend...I thought some non-pro women would sign up, but I figure: "Hey, I've done three "C" races, I'm totally ready to race against an Olympian!" Well, it should be amusing at best. And humbling. After I looked at who was registered, I revised my goal for the weekend. Now it is: "Get a picture of Jennie Reeds quads next to mine."

Michiko told me this is how I am going to win the Keirin.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

ha ha ha! i liked the way they fell..really stiff still on the bike...looks funny...

Keirin head bump tactic...:-)

First place??! excellent!

chatterbox said...

nice work, beth!

norcalcyclingnews.com said...

beth was a total rockstar on the track Wednesday.


damn good experience will come this weekend ... and a few good foto-ops, ta'boot!

Itinerant Rick said...

Hey, get the quad picture, then we need to get one with you next to Brooke Miller, then we can use the comparison between Brooke and the comparison between Brooke and Cippo to get a comparison of yours to Cippo.

Velo Bella said...

you forgot to link Michiko

Grey said...

You won your omnium. I think it's fair to say you dominated it.

Have fun this weekend and remember that you're in a desirable position: you've got nothing to lose. Race loose and have fun. Cool that you'll have a front row seat for some ferrealassed track action.

place_holder said...

maybe clif will give you a magnet to put on your frame?

one of these days, i gotta come and watch you... fucking traffic...

word of the day for this esl: ninny.

Lorri Lee Lown -- velogirl said...

you're awesome, Beth! I love reading your race reports. young, fit, competitive spirit, and you understand racing -- what more do you need?

btw, brooke has one quad bigger than the other so you'll have to take two photos -- one of each.

Itinerant Rick said...

VG - no need for pics of both of Brooke's quad, just the right one, the bigger one and the one she compares to Cippo's.