Monday, August 11, 2008

weekend track haps

so i was pretty pissy this weekend, so apologies to any people i was around and if i was not very fun. let me just say this: racing with two or three people sucks. a lot. where the hell was everyone? the lack of attendance was all just really lame in my opinion. i guess cool that i qualified by default, but who even knows if there are minimum field sizes so that will count. okay, i will not brood anymore for my long, crappy weekend at the track. (no offense to the women who did show- i think we were all equally as frustrated, because such small field sizes is really no fun or a good experience.)

the one awesome part of the weekend was getting some time to ride annabell's bike! i think i neglected to blog about this last week, but annabell is a little angel! she is letting me use her Dolan frame for the year. let me just say this: it is awesome! you go around the turns really fast and you don't have to fight it to stay straight. and you stand up on it and it just feels so solid and doesn't creek and make noise. i never really understood what people meant by a "stiff" bike, cause i only had ridden my bike, but this thing is totally awesome! i have been pretty much gushing about annabell all week and this weekend was no different. i had so much fun testing out this bike and can't wait to really get used to riding it, cause i know that my jump will definitely be better once i figure out how i can put my weight further forward on it.

alright, so the races. saturday was the 500, keirin, points race, team sprint. my 500 was okay i guess. i had a personal best, so i should be happy (40.46), but i was thinking i would be breaking 40 this weekend, so was a bit disappointed. my half lap start was actually the best i had done, but my initial 80 meters off the line was absolutely terrible. borrowed someone's disc wheel, which was not a good idea. got whistled on my first start, cause the axel or something slipped. stuff was wrenched at the line, and then i had a re-start, and i just didn't put it down in my first five pedal strokes. need to really work on my start a lot more. the keirin was with kelly b and ileana. i was a dumbshit and swung up over the red line at one point, really need to get used to this bike, as it is a bit more responsive. i thought kelly would pass me underneath, but she didn't, so i still led it out. points race was just the three of us again. i tried sprinting from lots of different places, coming around early and late, which was good practice i suppose and then broke away the last 5 laps or so.

but the highlight of saturday - and my weekend - was the team sprint! this is a fun event! annabell came all the way to the track and warmed up about 2 hours early to do this with me! what a gem. my initial start off the line was good and we were drawing even, but then when i dropped down behind her, i had a little gap that i needed to close out of the turn 2. then when she pulled off it was like a wind tunnel and i just went as fast as i could to the end. we rode a 52.25, which she said was a really good time. this race was a bunch of fun, and was my saving grace to the weekend.

next day was 200/sprints, scratch race. 200 went way worse than i had hoped for and was the worst time i have had in awhile, 13.4, and i was disappointed. then there were only three of us sprinting, so i had forever til i actually went. i sat in the back of the men's scratch race for half of it to get in a better warmup before the sprints. i sprinted against ileana twice. then her, megan, and i did the scratch race right when we finished. it ended up being a long day, and i didn't get home til around 3:30/4pm.

well, that was the weekend. really wish some women would have showed up, just so we could have raced... i certainly hope that the district race isn't like this. but, it was really awesome to ride that bike and i love it and can't wait to get more comfortable on it.

6 comments:

norcalcyclingnews.com said...

AWESOME!

i love the team sprint. i can't believe i may have to miss natz because of my blown out ass. oh well.

i have to say, i'm getting a bigger and bigger crush on Annabell. don't tell her!

chatterbox said...

Sorry Dude! I was being lazy this weekend (and playing hike & bike with a friend who really needed to talk). I will be out at the Beat the Clock next weekend, though!

Allison Krasnow said...

Yea, I hung out with Kelly at San Rafael on Sat. night and heard the crappy news.

It was road race nationals + Patterson Pass Road Race + San Rafael Twilight Crit + Track Elite Qualifiers all on the same day and there just aren't enough women to go around for 4 events on the same day.

That doesn't change the crappyness of it, though.

Anonymous said...

You gals did good with the circumstances. I thought about racing, but my legs were toast from states and the clinic. It would have been you 3 + 1 way behind you. I had fun watching you guys race though!

place_holder said...

where the hell was everyone?

Duh, Beijing.

teamwelliver said...

i'll be there for districts for you guys to beat up on!
i missed out on about 20 things i wanted to do this weekend by going to iowa. first time i go home in 2 years and i miss out on all the fun.