March 13, 2005, Track Racing
San Diego, CA
(All pictures can be clicked to go to a different page of more details)
My previous track racing was in 1981. Some of the events did not exist back then and others were different distances now that I am in the Masters class. Over the years I had disposed of my track equipment and over the last 5 months had started gathering up my collection again. The frame was a custom made aluminum beauty from Andy Gilmour of Tucson which I received on the Tuesday prior to this weekend. It tracks straight for the time trial events, is quick handling for the sprint events, is very stiff for the quick accelerations, and feels just right. |
This particular day started off with a timed Flying 200 meter Time Trial (TT).
These are used to seed everyone in the upcoming Sprint matches and thus riders use regular drop handlebars.
This was my first ever 200 and technique is part of the event, using the banks to maximize the potential energy to drop you down as you are already at full speed.
I had chosen to use a 50 x 14 gear, probably a bit large, but there's only so much time to change gears between events and I wanted a 50 x 15 in the following event.
I only managed a 13.1 second time, 6th fastest of the 20 in this event.
So now I have a goal to get under 13.
National Championship time for my age group is 11.52.
The gear didn't feel overly large, but was probably not optimum. Results |
My next event was the 500 meter TT.
This is a standing start race of 1.5 laps around the track.
I have one set of handlebars just for this event, that has drop bars for the initial acceleration and aerobars for the faster last half.
Since I had been practicing long sprints for the road races, I was thinking this might be my best event.
I selected a 50 x 15 gear.
I felt pretty good, but again it was my first time doing this event.
I managed 39.6 seconds, 6th fastest of the 15 who participated at this distance.
National Championship time for my age group is 35.3, so I have quite a way to go. Results |
Results |
After a short rest, the finals for the Match Sprint were next. Josh Ryan had the fastest 200 m time of all the participating sprinters and had also won both his heats. At 1.3 laps to go, Josh came to a crawl, trying to force me to advance in front of him, but I was able to match his slowness and maintain my rearward position. He was a bit more savvy and would not be easily fooled. As we hit 1 lap to go, he picked up the speed, but by 200 m to go, he still was not going 100%. This would allow him to have more kick at the end and it also meant I could not sit so far back to accelerate up in his draft. With about 120 me to go I only had a half length on him as we hit the final bank and I jumped with everything I had to try to catch him off guard before he gives it his all. Unfortunately he still had plenty of power in his legs and I lost by about a wheel length. However a very satisfying race as he had used good tactics and I still performed well. Results |
The final event was to take everyone that wanted to participate in a Miss and Out race.
I love these races and we had about 11 of us at the start.
In a Miss and Out, there are selected laps as the race progresses where the last rider that crosses the line is eliminated until usually about 3 or so riders remain to fight it out for the win.
If there is a large group, the pulled riders could be eliminated every lap, but we lost a rider every third lap.
The considerations here are to not get boxed in at the inside or the middle while you still have plenty of energy, but nowhere to use it, but to also balance your energy expenditure of either having to sprint every time or work hard at the front.
When it gets down to 15 or less, I like to play the back, so I played the back for the entire race, much to Noel's concern.
Josh and Matt set the pace at the front as I made sure I could always get around to the outside on every elimination lap.
To me this was ideal as Josh and Matt would probably be working harder than me.
As expected, the final three consisted of Josh, Matt, and myself.
We were given a few extra laps to rest, plan, and position.
As we got the bell for the final lap, I was where I wanted to be, in second position behind Josh.
However, we had not picked up speed yet and Matt jumped to the inside and Josh jumped enough to stay slightly ahead of him.
As we hit the 200 m to go mark, Josh moved in front of Matt, and I was now in third.
My plan at this point was thinking that Matt had enough energy to accelerate up on Josh as we go through the final bank and I'd follow him and use that to slingshot off and pass them both.
To my surprise he began to falter at the point I expected him to accelerate and started to leave a gap on Josh.
I now had to quickly get around Matt, get behind Josh, and try to accelerate past him before the line.
I was moving pretty well, but ran out of distance to pass Josh and ended up second by about a wheel length.
If the tactics had worked out differently I may have won, but that's part of the challenge. Results |
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