Sunday, May 18, 2008

i don't want monday to come....

this was a fantastic weekend.

friday night alicia was hosting another street sprint match.

alicia's street sprints are extremely fun. i don't really know anyone there, except a handful of people, but everyone is so pleasant and funny. alicia really wanted me to do a sprint, and i succumb to peer pressure very easily, so i requested to sprint against morgan so i would lose and get out of the bracket. my plan worked perfectly. then i got to be a holder the rest of the night.

to be honest, holding can get a bit lonely sometimes. cause everyone hangs out at the finish line. but it is a pretty good place to be if you don't know anyone, cause people come down to visit right before their sprint and you can chat them up for a few minutes then send them on their way.

fortunately, mark altimarano had taught me how to hold just a few days prior. except holding mark was kind of challenging and i think i almost dropped him. but, these skinny fixie boys were very easy to hold.

the picture above is the final round. the guy who won (in the middle- pimp red bike w/ 650 front wheel), garrett, is very, very fast. you might remember him from goldsprint nights. he was also very serious and had quite the game face. i very much enjoyed watching him race. but honestly, i didn't like holding him very much - not because he wasn't extremely kind and pleasant - but because he kept track standing, and it is very difficult to hold someone when they are still trying to track stand. garrett had some pimp wheels on his bike, so when i'd hold people next to him, i'd hum them the rocky theme song. but it didn't matter so much, cause they still got slaughtered, as garrett was an animal. i hope garrett comes to ride the track, because he is very, very fast. he told me he had ridden track in holland at some point. neat-o. i hope he comes down to hellyer. he has an intense competitive side in addition to crazy speed, so i think it would be fun to see him race. but enough on the winner of the night....i am sure you are all curious about me.

i improved very much on my holding skills friday night. my technique improved of squeezing the knees on the wheels and such. it isn't quite hard, but then again, i was holding some very skinny people. but i think what really gave me the extra help with my holding, was my secret weapon: the booties.

this cropped picture is tiny. but those are some pretty sweet red crocheted booties with a bit white ball on top. a very nice lady named phyllis from ohio made them for me. they slide very nicely on over your cleats. plus, they look super cool.

saturday. i did lots of fun things with my friends. one of them included going to my friend evan's art show. evan's amazing artistic talent is only trumped by the amazing ways in which he uses this talent. he has been working with an organization called youth speaks that does spoken word performance with youth. anyway, basically he made 18 portraits of the youth during their performances. you can see them here. also if you click on their picture, you can listen to their poems. while yesterday the pictures were displayed in galleries, this summer they are going to be displayed publicly in san francisco at areas all around the city. evan got some company to donate a system where a phone number will be under each portrait, so people can call the number on their cell phones to hear the poet's work. you can read some more about his project here. i am pretty much amazed at his work time after time. last year, he did a project on the 22 busline in SF (down fillmore). more on that here.

sunday. also a lovely day. did a tiny bit of training at the track before the races. not too many people showed up this week, but still a good time all around. we did the keirin, scratch race, win 'n out, and points race. all were pretty fun, despite tiny field sizes. then, mary talked me into trying the madison with her... which i was pretty nervous about. i LOVED getting flung in-- but the flinging her in was a bit more nerve racking. well, i didn't really ever do it. i think once i touched her hand, kinda sorta. the other times i just kind went..... "go, mary. just go. f*&%! sorry. i missed you." that shit is tricky! but despite me sucking at that, what a cool race! sprint, rest, sprint, rest. that was my kinda race for sure. it is so neat! and if i was really tired...or let's be honest, just nervous cause a lot of people were coming around, as i only wanted to do the exchanges when we were alone.... i'd just be a jerk and go fast on the rail, so it would take her a longer time to circle around. hahaha. that is totally dick, i know. anyway, those exchanges were pretty neat, but really hard, mostly because i am not so coordinated. but it was totally neat-o!

8 comments:

Velo Bella said...

you are so brave to have even tired the madison. I am too chicken shit. Mary asked me once and I cowered like a wee baby and said no thanks.

Lorri Lee Lown -- velogirl said...

I like being a holder because you can cop a feel.....oh, I'm a lonely girl.

place_holder said...

hi beth's mom. i hope "dick" is not a cuss word. she did beep out "fuck" though.

Laura said...

You forgot to mention that in the middle of all that fun stuff, you took the time to lug my wheels home with you and fiddle with the cassette using online tutorials, all to provide me with a working cross-turned-road-bike.

Thank you.

Er...the cassette's not likely to, say, fall off, is it?

beth bikes! said...

100% customer satisfaction is NOT guaranteed with my wrenching. ;)

Itinerant Rick said...

Track attendance was down because lots of the roadie-n-track types were at (a) Kern, (b) Panoche, or (c) Modesto. Women and their guys were likely at (a), parents or folks supporting juniors were at (b) [under-16 championship], and some of the other guys who like pancake flat, crit-type road races were at (c). Bummer that this was the last day of that series :-(

WarrenG said...

Cyclistrick, et al, Rick is currently busy with AVC and masters nat's, but he may be offering more of those Saturday/Sunday races later in the summer.

Velogirl, we had about 45 entries in keirins on Sunday. That'sa whole lotta holdin goin on.

Beth did a timed 200mTT before the races. The track was a little crowded and she had to weave between 4 other riders on the backstretch. Two different watches showed 13.3.

mattio said...

every now and then me and some nyc folks get a bit tipsy and practice madison throws... they're a lot of fun.

on the track, when it's not an intense moment, i see dudes tagging out just by pushing their teammate's arse. still gives them some momentum without the involvement of the throw.

but yeah, a whole lot of fun for sure!