Monday, September 10, 2007

day 2 - track championship

when i woke up sunday morning, i felt so bad it was hard to make my way to the bathroom. i really felt like shit and was wondering how the hell i was going to ride my bike. anyway, i made it down and once i started warming up, i felt a little better, but not too much better.

200TT: i was hoping to break 14 in this cause i was pretty close to that a couple of times. i figured with the fancy wheels i would. nope. 14.06. just a tiny bit faster than before. i got some good advice, though, about the TT. 1) ride the black line. i was apparently swinging wide in the pole. and 2) either a) start my acceleration a lot earlier so i am at top speed at the line, or b) jump hard coming down the bank. i didn't do either of those. 3) use my arms and upper body more so i am pulling on the bike. Good advice.... then we started our match sprints. Only 6 of us.

#1- My first one was against Courtney. My goal of all the match sprints was to keep the speed high. I kept the speed up, jumped into turn 1, and held off for the win. That meant I made the semi-finals.

#2- My second one was again Annabelle. Annabelle is really fast and really good at tactics. She came in 3rd at Masters Nats! I knew I had nothing against her, so I thought I'd try to play to my strength, that being a long sprint. I was happy when I drew inside position-- cause then I figured I could jump early and maybe hold it off. But right off the start, she swooped down and took it and starting moving me up to the wall. A lot of times people slow down to try and get behind, but I knew this would be a mistake for me because of my jump, so I just tried to ramp the speed up. I wanted to hold my position where it was and not get moved further up to the fence- she tried moving me up, but I didn't budge and we knocked arms. I don't know if this was bad form of me or not. Anyway, I kept the speed really high on the back stretch and around curve 1 or 2. I really wanted to jump, but she was holding me tight right at her hip--so if I accelerated, she move up, and I didn't want to get slower cause I'd mess up my jump for sure. Anyway, she went down into the pole after turn 2 and I was right on her and after turn 3 I started to come around, but I was lame and swung WAY to far out, so by the time we were out of turn 4, we were sprinting to the line, and it was really close, but she had won. Had I been better about not swinging so far up, I *may* have had a shot at winning that, but regardless, it was a good race and I was pretty happy to finish so close to her.

#3- Now I was racing for 3rd place against Amanda. It was best 2 out of 3. Amanda and I are pretty similar sprinters, so this was going to be interesting. Amanda is pretty crafty and really likes to pin people up and shove a bit, but I just held my position strong and kept the speed high again. Just out of turn one, I was a tiny bit ahead of her, so I took that opportunity to cut down hard into the pole and sprinted it out for the win. It was a good move, I gapped pretty well, and held it off.

#4- I really didn't want to do another sprint (it was best 2 out of 3), so I wanted to win this one bad. This time I got the lower position and held it. Amanda got right on my wheel coming off so I couldn't pin her and she was just riding it good. I did some of the swurvy business trying to shake her off. But no dice. I figured I would do it a couple more times. On turn 4 I swerved up and instead of coming down normal, I popped it and jumped hard and started in for a long ass 1.25 lap sprint. I dug hard and got the win. I was pretty happy with this one.

I was pretty happy with my match sprints, and definitely won them on speed and not tactics- cause I have none with the match sprints. But, this was a lot of fun and I got a little better throughout the day.

me, mary ellen, and annabelle

Scratch Race: I no more than rolled around the warm-up circle a couple times, put my bike down, than they called the women's scratch race. Luckily, Matt made it 12 laps; I think he felt bad for me and Amanda. I was still exhausted from my long sprint. We rolled up to the rail. It was only 4 of us -- me and Amanda, really tired from our recent sprint, Mary Ellen, and Mary. I was so tired, I was just going to try and suck as much wheel as possible and never pull. I didn't feel one ounce bad about this because Mary hadn't done an event since the team time trial in the morning, and I just finished my 4th match sprint less than 3 minutes before the start of this race. Things were pretty mellow. Mary attacked some and I'd make Mary Ellen real her in. Amanda and I were just catching wheels. With 4.5 to go, Mary attacked hard. I came around Amanda to try and catch it, but her and Mary Ellen had gapped pretty big at that point. Amanda and I started taking pulls and keeping the pace high-- I figured we'd be racing for third...kinda like our 3rd match sprint. Anyway, with 1.5 to go I saw that Mary and Mary Ellen were getting all cat and mousey fighting for position up track-- and me and Amanda were barreling around. The bell rang and we were really close to them. Everyone in the stand were cheering for us, and silly Mary and Mary Ellen were way up track with no clue! It was pretty awesome. Anyway, we come out of turn 2-- start to pass Mary and Mary Ellen -- at this point I had taken over a lap pull and was dying, so I was hoping Amanda was gonna come around me there and take the win, but she stayed on my wheel. They see us start to pass, then they jump hard down the track and start sprinting to the finish. They still ended up winning (Mary Ellen first, Mary second), I came in third, and Amanda fourth -- but it was still pretty awesome. Just shows to never give up and dog it during a race, cause you never know what is going to happen in front of you.

me, mary ellen, and mary

Well, I was pretty happy with day 2. The turn out was really low, so that sucked, but I rode pretty well and improved, and wasn't nearly as tired as I thought I was that morning. All in all, I was pretty happy with this weekend. I think I improved a lot from when i started track racing in late June, and now know more concretely what I need to work on for next year. Track is a total blast and I hope more women show next year for the races! (4 people in a scratch race at the state championship meet is pathetic!) Can't wait for more people to show up for these races next year!

see, look how we all love each other at the track!

9 comments:

WarrenG said...

I suggest that any women considering coming out to the track, and women at the beginner sessions should read the blog posts by Beth, Sabine, and Nicky from this summer. If we could find 10 more women like them to race at the track... well, it would be real nice. And their friends too!

Team TWENTY12 said...

Beth you were awesome in your team sprints! its really great to see you out there racing hard - you have come a long way since AVC!!!

TreBone said...

Great job Beth!!!

Itinerant Rick said...

Way to go, Gunnar!

I am sorry I did not come out on Sunday. Too many obligations. But I was cheering ya'll on in spirit.

chatterbox said...

Look at all those podium shots! You rock.

Grey said...

"I was pretty happy with my match sprints, and definitely won them on speed and not tactics- cause I have none with the match sprints."

you're so silly. why do write silly lying lies like that??

awesome work this weekend. i was gonna try and spectate on sat. but i got lame instead.

karla said...

Nice job and fun to read! You are such a track stud.

I certainly wish (in retrospect) that I had been down at the track instead of crashing in Benicia, but what can you do. Thanks for all the kind words and the sweet e-card too :)

Unknown said...

no POO ride last night?

Carol G said...

Huge Kudos to you for showing up when you felt like shit and then performing so strongly. You are one tough chick, Beth!