TNR: Beer Primes and Siamang Calls

Tuesday nights at the San Diego Velodrome have an otherworldly feel: beautiful pastel sunsets; watching ground squirrels thread the needle between serpentine packs of riders; a view of the Coronado Bridge that morphs from a concrete and steel behemoth to a nebulous collection of blinking amber lights; the roar of General Electric, Rolls-Royce, and Pratt & Whitney turbofans in their continuous overhead procession from points unknown to touchdown at Linbergh Field; and, in the quiet moments, the eerie cries of peacocks, siamangs, and New Guinea singing dogs radiating from the zoo just across Florida Canyon. The racing is pretty cool too.

Tuesday June 2nd: Consistency was the word of the day. 4th in the tempo race, 3rd in the win-and-out, and 3rd in the points race. Not much to report from the land of the C's but I'll ramble on anyway:

Race 1 - Tempo Race: I hate point-a-lap, tempo, and snowball races. They favor a solo breakaway rider much more than a sprinter. Also, at the SDV, they're always the first race and I'm never fully warmed up for a max effort. Enough said.

Race 2 - Win-and-Out: I'd never raced a win-and-out before so I approached this as a learning experience. The plan: go all-in on the first sprint. Off the rail, we got the whistle in turn 1. This wouldn't have been a problem except that I lined up in the back and had to play jump-the-gap right up until the first sprint. Two guys punched it and I watched them ride off the front from my position mid-pack. One guy won the sprint (and the race), the other guy blew. As that sprint played out, I continued to move up but still wasn't close enough to contest the second sprint on the next lap. Three guys went for it. One guy got the sprint and two guys blew. This put me at the front of the field and I went for it with about 300 m to go. I got the sprint mainly because the five strongest guys had either won and were out or had blown and were out. Lessons learned: A) line up at the front unless you're sure there'll be a neutral lap. B) If you go for a sprint, you'd better win because you'll be done no matter how you finish.

Race 3 - Points Race: The third race was (as always) a 15 lap points race with sprints every five laps. I somehow timed it exactly right, ending up 2nd wheel in the paceline at 200 m to go for the first sprint. I got out of the saddle and accelerated with the desired effect: nobody was nearby at the line. 5 points for Dave. But there was a problem. I had completely blown. Two guys countered the sprint and got a gap as I was drifting back through the pack. I should have tried to bridge once I'd recovered. Could've - should've - would've. When the second sprint came up, I pulled away for third place: 2 more points. This time, I was careful not to go too hard and recovered quickly. Several of us at the front of the pack started working together to bring back the lead riders. I wasn't paying careful attention to the lap cards and took a hard pull starting at two laps to go. After my half-lap pull, I went to the back just as the pack ramped up for the sprint. No points. Oh well. Still good enough for 3rd.

Tuesday June 9th: The start of the evening had a preternatural feel. Traffic on southbound I-5 was so bad that I tried a short cut through Mission Valley and Hillcrest. Strangely, it worked (i.e. I didn't get lost)...and I ended up at the track only about 15 minutes after my normal arrival time even though I'd left work much later than usual. However, because it was a youth racing night, my tardy arrival meant that I wouldn't get any on-track warm-up before the motorpaced warm-up. After some unfortunate DeWalt-on-DeWalt junior crash action there was more weirdness: the usual motorpace was to be replaced by a new- and- improved, environmentally friendly, zero- carbon- footprint protocol. This meant that the A pack would be doing the pacing. None of the officials or promoters (or A riders) were on the same page about how this would work but the A's and C/D's managed to sort it out for themselves. It actually turned out to be a much nicer warm-up as the speed was higher and there was less accordioning coming off of the banking.

One last hitch in the start of the evening: just after pulling on my skinsuit, I looked down and noticed that the seam just below the zipper was starting to rip out. Hmmm...the Buddha belly is getting out of control - gotta lay off the vending machine cookies at work (and maybe start doing sit-ups again).

Race 1 - Point-a-Lap. Have I mentioned that I hate point-a-laps (and tempo and snowball races)? I got one point mid-race and finished 4th in the final sprint. Surprisingly, it was good enough for 4th place overall. Despite the better warm-up, my lungs still burned and my and legs still screamed during the race.

Race 2 - Unknown Distance:. I stayed in the middle of the pack most of the race and had just moved up towards the front when the bell rang. I missed getting an excellent lead-out by about three bike lengths. Bryan K. started sprinting at~350 m but I was a little too far back to get his wheel. By the time I caught him in turn three, I had spent a few too many fun tickets and couldn't come around. Regardless, second is not so bad.

Race 3 - Points Race (as always, 15 laps with 3 sprints): I actually sat out the first sprint on purpose with the plan of launching a counter attack after the sprint and forming a break. The plan almost worked. Two guys separated themselves during the sprint and kept going after the line. They had a 60-70 m gap but I manged to bridge in less than a lap. One more rider came across and we started working together...kind of. The Adams Ave mustache dude decided not to work. I don't have a problem with that except that instead of sitting at the back, he was pulling through to second wheel and then off with the lead rider which meant that we were effectively loosing an extra bike length every rotation. More importantly, he was disrupting the paceline. I'm sorry to report that all parties involved fell short of exercising their utmost decorum: there was some yelling and a cry of "Eat my ass!" The lack of cohesion allowed the front of the pack to catch us just as we were winding up for the 2nd sprint. I was too blown to go for it but essentially held position for 4th (1 point). Things slowed down a bit so I was able to recover heading into the final sprint. The call for a Tsingtao beer prime at 3 laps to go took two riders off the front and strung out the field. Perfect. Coming into the bell lap, I was between the sprinter's and stayer's lines and got onto the wheel of the first guy to jump. We quickly passed the two prime-chasers and properly being in the draft (unlike during the finale of the unknown distance race), I was able to come around and take the sprint and 5 points. Hmmm...6 points. Probably 2nd, 3rd, or 4th. I have to admit I was surprised to hear that I won. Cool. I'll take it.