Day two of track racing

Today was the second day of racing at the Kissena velodrome and the first day of the Opening Weekend races. I grabbed my bike, my bag and my rollers and headed into Queens. I got on the 7 train and took that to the end of the line, which is about a mile from the velodrome. I arrived a little early so I had plenty of time to warm up. I did a few solo laps before joining onto the end of a paceline a few riders had started. Shortly after it was my turn to pull the bell was rung and it was time to start the races.

The events scheduled for today were: a 2000m pursuit, a team sprint and match sprints. For the pursuit I was paired up with my friend Chris. We started on opposite ends of the track and at the sound of the starter pistol we were off. Kissena is a 400m track so I would have to complete 5 laps. I started off fairly strong but was careful not to push it too hard. I stayed slightly below my max (or rather my perceived max) until the start of the final lap at which point I went all out.

After the pursuit came the team sprint. I am currently an unattached rider so I have no official team and in any case the races as Kissena are less formal as the crowd there is much smaller than your typical road race (all the teams were ad-hoc). My friend Dan and I paired up and our friend Gui mentioned he needed teammates and so our team was formed. We were discussing the order in which we would do the sprints, as the team must ride in a set order with the lead rider pulling off each lap (so the lead rider at the start of the race pulls off after the first lap and leaves the race, bumping the second rider to the lead position and so on). We concluded that the best idea would be to have the rider with the best pursuit time in the third position but since we didn't have the results from the pursuit yet our temporary order was me, Gui and then Dan as the third. When the results for the pursuit came in, Dan was in second place, I was in third and Gui was in fourth. We decided to keep our original order as Gui didn't want to be the first rider.

We lined up at the start while three other races held our bikes in place. At the start of the race I took the lead position, Gui was on my wheel and Dan was the anchor. My goal was to reach my top speed by the 200m line and maintain that for another 200m at which point the first lap would be over and I would pull out of the race. In the end our team took second place.

Next up were the match sprints. Dan and I were paired up and we drew straws (actually golf balls) to determine who had the lead position. I lucked out and Dan had to take the lead. After a slow lap and a quarter, as Dan tried to get me to take the lead, he crawled to the top of the banking and then dropped down. It was on. I got right on his wheel, and started to overtake him on turn 3. He saw me catching up and started to move up-track forcing me to move further up track. This ended up working to his advantage as he beat me by half a wheel. In the end he walked away with 4th place.

Tomorrow will be the second day of the Opening weekend and will consist of mass start events including a 6 lap scratch, 9 lap points race, Miss-and-Out and a Chariott. Wednesday of next week will be the start of the Kissena twilight series.

Next week will also be the start of my training for the hour record.