Thursday, July 30, 2009

Hellyer Wednesday Night Omnium, July 29, 2009

I was feeling a little fuzzy in the brain and really slow to warm up last night at the track. After about 20 minutes of warmup I stupidly (and I mean Dr. STOOPID LEE Senior, not Junior) brainfarted and tried to freewheel. Up went my ass into the air along with my rear wheel and my heart rate. It was no big deal and I wasn't close to crashing or anything-I do have thousand so of hours of fixed gear under my belt afterall- but it was a reality check to clear the cobwebs and pay attention or just go home. The rest of the night went better and, I have to say, I really really enjoy my track nights. The people are great, the workout is excellent and it's just one of those things that clicks for me.

O yeah, I was racing with the B's. And to cut to the chase, I was tenth in the omnium out of 18 riders which is pretty cool since I wasn't one of the seven guys with zero points for the night. All apologies to those guys...

Race 1: 3x5 Points race. I decided about five laps in to just go for broke on the penultimate sprint. So with the lap counter showing 4 I jumped hard coming off turn four and with the bell ringing in my left ear I cooked it into turns one and two, drove the back stretch then added a little bit more for a final 100 meter kick to win that sprint and earn 5 points. I had nothing left for the final sprint but the 5 points was enough for fourth (tied for third, actually but there is some complex math for determining the tie breaker that bounced me to fourth) place and thus, I earned my single omnium point and was able to feel good about not getting zeroed. Wee.

Race 2: 12 lap scratch race. I ended this one with WAY too much gas left in the tank and frustrated that I didn't work a little harder. I felt way too fresh at the end. But the tentative are pack fodder on the track so it goes. I was about tenth but not really sprinting.

Race 3: Miss and out. Blech! Another race finished while feeling way too fresh. The pack spread across the track and I got boxed in up at the rail and that was that. I counted ten guys left when I got pulled so that kind of sucked.

Race 4: 40 lap points race with the A/B combine! That's right, I said A/B combine not B/C combine. With my placing in the early points race, I qualified for the A race and that went quite well. Surfing the back of the pack was going very well so I put my nose on the front a few times. I was way off pace for contesting the sprints but it was great being able to hang in there and I even tried to take a couple of fliers. On the 15-to go sprint I went off the back and took a lap but when I got back on I survived the next sprint and then even made an attack with three to go, pulled the field at full steam for a lap then pulled off, went off the back and stayed on the same lap for the final. That was a great confidence builder!

And fun too!

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