Dude, where're my wheels?

Using the first race as a warm up is not a good thing.

Trying to come around in turn 3.

Tuesday, June 16: I can now officially add one more thing to the list “Things I’ve forgotten to take to a race”. Previous to tonight, my list included one count each for the three big ones: shoes, helmet, and license. I still managed to race each time: went home for the shoes (luckily it was a short drive); borrowed a helmet (”Misty”, a pink metal flake open faced motorcycle helmet – don’t ask); and got an official to vouch for the fact that I had a license. Also on the list are the little things you can borrow or do without: socks, gloves, water bottles, floor pump, etc. No big deal there. But this time I forgot something you can't race without: wheels. Actually, I didn’t forget them. I just brought the wrong ones. I grabbed a couple of wheel bags next to where my track bike was hanging (sans wheels)…but they were the wrong ones. Two front road wheels will not a complete track bike make. So there I am at the San Diego Velodrome dressed down in my skinsuit with my number pinned on and my naked bike hanging on the rack. Fortunately, Dinorah was planning on bringing O & S to the race (her first time out to the track). Unfortunately, she wasn’t planning on arriving until around the time of first race. An attempt to barrow a wheelset ended when the front wheel was a millimeter or two too big to fit into the front dropout. Luckily, Dinorah did make it just in time for me to make it into my first race.

The first race was (of course) a point-a-lap. Coming to the rail cold, I had no ambitions. Being endurance night, we were doing 12 laps. Not much to write about the race. I finished with no points but at least I was now warmed up. Our second of two races (endurance night meant two longer races instead of three shorter ones) was a 20 lap points race. Time to make up for my just sitting in during the first race. The first five laps went by quickly and I managed to win the first sprint, building up my confidence a bit. The three of us who contested the sprint started working together to maintain the small gap we opened. The field, however, wouldn’t have any of that. A quick chase ensued but just as we were caught, I heard the screech of metal on concrete behind me. The two of us on the very front managed to stay upright and unimpeded. We kept rolling but I was waiting for the officials to neutralize the race. It never happened. Unfortunately I couldn’t quite get my head back into the race. The two of us were caught by a rider from behind…and then another. And I managed to be just slightly out of position for the rest of the sprints. I ended up third and grumpy with my performance

As I pulled off the track, instead of heading for the warm up/down circle in the infield, I made a snap decision and headed to the rail to jump into the B’s Points race. 35 laps - what the hell - the worst that will happen is that I'll get dropped. From the start, it was a bit faster than the C’s, but not insanely so. I was just planning on hanging out at the back so that I wouldn’t impede anybody else’s race. That worked well for ~10 laps. After that, I started moving up, not on purpose – I was just following wheels. After ~10 more laps, I found myself in perfect position to counter one of the points sprints. On instinct, I jumped away as the pack slowed and regrouped. It was not a powerful, decisive attack, I just rolled off the front going just slightly faster than everybody else. A lap and a half later I was back in the fold. Luckily nobody countered and I was able to catch my breath at the back. Once recovered, I started following wheels again and ended up ~6 riders back when the final sprint started. The sprint started a bit eariler that I'm used to: out of turn 4 just before we got the bell. My legs had enough to keep glued on the back of the pack which I believe was moving at approximately warp speed. But there was no way that I would have been able to come around anybody. Needless to say I was happy to just finish on the lead lap of my first B’s race – especially after having done 20 lap race immediately before.

Next up – time to try out the B’s.

Tuesday, June 30: I discovered that the nicest thing about racing the B's is that you can get a good warm up by just doing the motor pace - no need to arrive extra early. 15 laps at the slower "C" pace then 15 laps at a faster "B" pace gives you 10 km to get the blood flowing. Very nice.

The first race was the usual point-a-lap. It didn't seem quite so painful this week - probably because I had a decent warm up. The announcer called a "wine prime" about 1/2 way through the race and I went for it - unfortunately I was too far back when I started so I turned my effort into a counter attack after the prime/point sprint and got a gap. I knew the B's are faster so I buried myself trying to pick up that one point. Ummm....tactical mistake. I opened up a huge gap but completely fried myself. When I crossed the line, I looked back and saw a rider close to bridging across. I swung uptrack in turn 1 so that I could accelerate off the banking and get on his wheel. But it was too late - my fun tickets were punched. He ended up staying away for the rest of the race. If I could have stayed with him, I would have been guaranteed second. Lesson learned #1: don't go all-in in the middle of a race.

Our second race was a miss-and-out. I used to race these on road bikes on a 1/2 mile stock car oval in Spokane - but this was my first time doing it on the track. I did it exactly wrong. The first half of the race should be spent on the inside in the front portion of the pack. The second half should be spent on the outside giving you room to contest the sprints. The other way around doesn't work very well. Lesson learned #2: miss-and-outs are all about smart racing. One note: even though it was the sketchiest race I've done on the track - it's very nature has people sprinting into the tiny, fluctuating gaps between adjacent riders back wheels - it's still a lot of fun.

The points race wasn't quite as fun. Because the A's were doing a madison as their final race, any A riders not partnered up were allowed to do our points race. They had to start ~3/4 lap behind us but, being A's and working together smoothly, they caught us not too long after the first points sprint. That wasn't what made the race hard. It was hard because we raced right from the rail - not even 1/4 lap to group together. Everything splintered from the start and I made it into the second group. When the A's came by we were so knackered from chasing, there was no chance to hang on. Lesson learned #3 - don't assume there's going to be any neutral racing - be ready to go from the rail.

Still, even with no real results, racing the B's is much more gratifying than racing the C's. Besides, this is all about getting fitness for 'cross, right? Only 75 days to go...