April 24, 2005, Track Racing
San Diego, CA

(All pictures can be clicked to go to a different page of more details)

We made our second trip to San Diego this year for some track racing (see the first weekend). We had been watching the weather all week, as there was some chance of rain over the weekend. Saturday was predicted to have 51% chance of precipitation and Sunday 24%. Rather than get up early on Saturday to arrive at rain, I decided to get a ride in the morning while in sunny Tucson and skip the training session. As it turned out, the weather happened to be fine on Saturday afternoon and they did some flying 200 meter TT's that I missed out on. Sunday also turned out to be beautiful, with temperatures in the mid 70's, so we could ride without extra clothing.

It had been six weeks since the last track race. During that time, my racing priorities were on a couple of criteriums. My body was also not cooperating, with lung congestion after hard workouts, several days were I felt a lack of strength, and I even had a bit of a sore throat on Thursday. My track bike had gone back to the shop for some minor changes and I didn't have it back until the Monday before racing, so less than a week to practice on it again. Combined with the uncertain weather, I didn't make a 100% decision to go until Saturday morning. The unsettled weather also made for a stressful six hour drive which took it's toll on Noel, who prefers to be behind the wheel.

This day started off with a timed 2000 m pursuit, six laps around the track. This event is the most demanding on the lungs so I was hoping that they wouldn't fail me. I thought I'd try moving my computer up to my thumbs where I could monitor it and hit the button for a lap time. I also bumped the gear ratio up substantially from a 50x15 last time to a 48x13. Previously I had completed the task in 2:42.6 and I wanted to try to get it down to about 2:30; this meant an average of 25 seconds per lap and 30 mph overall.

Bike hold for the start First strokes Finish

The first lap usually takes about an extra three seconds due to the standing start. I had a fair start and hit the button which showed about 27 seconds (with the autostart, it takes a few wheel revolutions for the start to kick in, so the actual time was over 29), slower than the desired pace. As I was looking down at the computer, I saw it hit 32.6 mph, a little too high. The second lap was completed in 23.8 and thought that I needed to slow down the pace and tried to ease off just a bit. The third lap was done in 26.5, so I had eased up too much, but I found it difficult to get the pace back up, completing the next lap in 26.2. On the next lap I fumbled with the button and the computer was starting to fumble around on my quickly made mounting system and showed 28.2 seconds. I started thinking that maybe this self timing was not a good idea as it was getting a bit distracting. The last lap showed 28.6 seconds for a total official time of 2:42.7, almost exactly my previous result.

Results So I need to do more 2000 practice, I need to improve my initial start, and I need to pace myself better to not be so fast on the second lap and have better speed in the end. This was an almost exact repeat of last month's ride where I hit 32.8 on the second lap and had an almost exact profile of slowing down throughout the ride. Next time I may have the computer up where I can see it, but not worry about pressing the buttons.

My next event was the 500 meter TT. This is a standing start race of 1.5 laps around the track. I think that I can make my biggest improvements on my standing start and had practiced a new technique. I feel that I need more practice as I don't think I was able to bring this into focus and I just went hard. I'll be working on my initial start over the next month. Last time I did the event in 39.6 seconds, this time 39.3, so a minor improvement, but nowhere near what I was hoping for. I also used the larger gear of 48x13 this time instead of the 50x15 previously. Results
First lap, turn 4
Final lap, turn 4

The next three events would all be massed start events, starting with a Win and Out. I had not done one of these before, but basically we get five laps and then the first one across the line is the winner, but the rest of the non-winners continue on, where the next place winner is determined on every other lap. So the tactic, if one feels capable, is to win the first sprint, otherwise someone who rested a bit during that sprint may have an advantage to go for second. Because there were only two Class A riders at the meet (Bill Egan and Kevin Lieberman, both on the Landis team (green and white jerseys) from Phoenix), we all ran together. We had fifteen starters and the two Class A riders had done comparable times in their 1000 m TT event (a good indicator of one's possible sprint capabilities). I was also going to keep attention on the two Junior riders that had performed better than myself in the 500; they were from Mexico and seemed very strong at the end of their TT rides. Unfortunately they packed up and left just as we were starting the mass start events, so we'll never know how they could have mixed it up. One thing in my favor was that Bill and Kevin had not raced against me before and of course assumed they could easily wrap this up.

So of course, my tactic was to get on Bill's wheel and beat him to the line. The first couple of laps were extremely slow and I had no problem gluing myself to Bill's wheel. I was able to notice that Bill had a slightly smaller gear (I was in a somewhat larger 48x14 due to the tailwind on the final stretch). Bill rode in the middle of the pack toward the inside of the track, which could lead to some potential problems with getting boxed in. The pace picked up with about one and a half laps to go as expected and we were still pretty much in the middle although some of the slower riders fell behind us. As we hit the 200 m to go line on the 333 m track, Bill gave a bit of a jump going through some small holes in the pack. I was able to follow him, first passing a rider on my left and then giving a bit of a shout to warn the other rider that I was about to pass on his left. We approached turn three and I stayed back as the backstretch had a bit of a headwind. At this point I was having no problem maintaining Bill's speed and was hoping that he wasn't holding a lot in reserve. As we started to hit turn four I just accelerated without taking advantage of any slingshot technique and easily blasted by Bill for the win.

Poor Bill had been up most of the night with a stomach flu and also was not able to eat anything that morning. After not taking the win, he eased up considerably and dropped out of the race. Kevin was a quarter lap down at this point and also dropped out. Two laps later, second place was taken by the rider that had crossed the line in sixth on the first sprint. An interesting format and some of the riders were out there for many laps until all the placings had been determined.
Results
Free lap Lap 4 Finish

The next event was a simple five lap Scratch race (first across the line wins) of five laps. They split up the field into two races, but still mixed the Classes together. There were no free laps and now Bill and Kevin were a bit more aware of me and if they were smart, they would have come up with some team tactics to use against me. Although they both started behind me on the pole, they immediately passed me at the start. Kevin was in a front group and Bill left a bit of a gap, possibly to later force me to chase while he could sit on my wheel. So while we were still rolling slowly, I moved up to Kevin's wheel. With a bit more than two and and a half laps to go, we finally had a surge and Kevin gave a good jump to stay with the attacking rider. I followed him and was surprised to see him do a quick movement down the track prior to clearing the rider he just passed. There was some noise as his spokes hit the forks of the other rider, but no accidents or major damage occured. With two to go, Kevin was in second and I was on his wheel. The pace picked up, Bill came around and took the lead with one to go, I folowed and was able to again pass him, giving just enough energy to nip him at the line.
Results
Pole Lineup Lap 3 One to go

After a bit of a rest, we had the final race, a Points Race. This would be a 30 lap race with sprints every 5 laps. Points are awarded to the winners: 5, 3, 2, 1 to the top four places. If a rider laps the field (as determined by the officials), that rider is awarded an additional 20 points (riders lapped by the field get a -20 points).

The eleven starters began slowly. Due to the disparity of capabilities of the riders, I was certain that I could eventually get the most points later in the race and didn't need to go after every win. With two laps to go to the first points sprint, Cindy (the only woman rider in the group), took off stongly. Three others were strung out behind her and I took it easy in the remaining group. With half a lap to go, I thought I might be able to catch the forth rider to get the last point, but I had waited too long and settled back down and the field became one again.

As we approached the second sprint, we had dropped some of the early sprinters. Bill gave a strong effort for the sprint and I let him have the glory of winning the second of six sprints, with John Menard (an ASU student from Tempe) taking third. This sprint put the three of us ahead of the other riders and we worked together to try to increase our lead.

A lap later we caught up with a Saguaro Velo (yellow and red jersey) rider and another Saguaro rider had been able to stay on the back of the three leaders. For the third sprint, I powered from the front and put some distance between me and the other riders, with the Saguaro riders leading the other two. I kept the power on for another lap and Bill got caught behind the Saguaro riders as John tried to catch up with me. We still had about half the race to go, so I eased up and let John join me so that we could work together.

I took the fourth sprint from John and led out the fifth sprint, powering it up between turns 3 and 4, and John lost contact. As I looked back after the sprint, John was too far back and I could see the field ahead of me, so I continued on solo. With 2.5 laps to go I zoomed past the field, good for an additional 20 points (John never caught the field). Bill was in the field and went with me and had enough strength to take the final sprint. In the end, I had 41 points, John had 15, third place had 7, fourth had 5. Bill finished sixth overall and I know that he is a stronger rider than that, so his stomach flu really dampened his abilities.
Results

Noel took some nice pictures again. The weather was great and just started to sprinkle as we were walking back to the car. We didn't have the locals around to add some spice, the Mexican juniors left early, and Bill had a stomach flu, so the level of competition was not high. It was still worthwhile to see what I could do and that I still need to work on improving my times in the TT events. I still have four months until the Nationals to try to pull it all together.

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