The sinus congestion continued into race day; however, I didn't think it would hinder me too much since most of the events are anaerobic. It sure wasn't going to stop me from trying.
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| Storm moving in over Pike's Peak. |
We (My mom and grandmother drove out to Colorado to watch the races and make a vacation out of it. It was really great having them there with me and to support me.) got to the velodrome in good time Thursday morning so I had plenty of warm-up for the flying 200 meter time trial. The flying 200 is used to seed riders in the sprint tournament and not technically a race in itself. The top 18 riders would advance to the sprint tournament and the other 40 or so riders were eliminated. I had ambitions of going sub 11 seconds. My PR at Dick Lane in Atlanta was an 11.65s and my PR at Giordana in Rock Hill was an 11.55s. I ran an 11.48s good enough for 13th place and into the tournament. But, I was disappointed. I ran it terribly. I think I had so much speed down the home stretch (with a tailwind) that when I went to stand in between corners 1 & 2, there wasn't enough resistance to push against. The bike started wobbling and I didn't feel like I had control. I had to sit back down. Then I really screwed it when I tried to stand again as I came out of corner 2 and into the wind. Still no more power or leg speed. I completed it feeling pretty frustrated and like I had really blown my chance. I would now be starting in the bottom of the sprinters bracket which meant I would be facing stronger, faster guys earlier in the tournament than I had planned. Oh well, at least I made it.
Sprint round one was that morning too. I was facing a guy from MIT. Thankfully, I had a friend in Marian Team Mechanic and Dick Lane Velodrome manager Jeff Hopkins who came over and gave me a few pointers for racing this guy. While it didn't end up actually playing out as described, I still really appreciated the advice and would return many times to ask Jeff for advice or help. He was a great asset for me being out there by myself.
Anyway, I started from the back in the first sprint so I could see what my opponent was doing. He jumped coming out of corner 4 into the bell lap. I responded with a reduced jump and got into the slip steam on the home stretch. Rounding out of corner two, I turned on the speed and started running up on him for a nice clean pass on the back straight. I dropped into the lane in corner 3 and carried it on around to the finish line. I had won my round one match! I was very pleased with how that race went. It was a textbook run up and pass. It felt good.
During the break between morning and evening sessions, we went to tour the Garden of the Gods at the base of the mountains. It was a pretty cool attraction, but my mind was still primarily on the racing.
I got back for the evening session prepared to race a guy from Colorado State for the 1/8 final. I was told this rider would be a more pure sprinter with lots of tactical games compared to my first round guy. I got to start from the back again. We starred at each other for the entire first 1.25 laps and then I started to try and run up on him as we both accelerated down the back straight. I was beside him as we headed into turn 3. Midway between turn 3 and 4, he moved up track with both wheels crossing over the red line, the sprinter's lane. I had to dart further up track and lost more ground. He carried it away on the home stretch for the win. I appealed to the head judge for the illegal move of coming out of the sprinter's lane once the sprint had been engaged. The judge said he definitely saw it, but he didn't feel like it changed the outcome of the race. I lost.
So next I was to race in the 1/8 rep which is a 3 person race giving the winner a pass back into the tournament for the quarter finals later that night. The two losers in each rep would go to the 9-12 finals later that night. I tried my same move pretty much on the back straight and easily made it around the first guy, but coming around two guys in 200 meters and travelling further distance by riding high in the corner proved too much for me to accomplish. I finished second in the rep and would be going to the 9-12 finals.
A 4 person match sprint, even the 3 person match sprint, is something I have never done before and the tactics are very different from the standard two person sprint. The 4 up 9-12 finals was a fast race from the start as I was expecting. It almost became two races within the race. One rider from Air Force was trying to pin me up high while the other two guys were racing each other in the sprinter's lane. I finally backed off in corner 3 on the first lap so I could drop behind the air force guy. Heading into corner one, I decided I had to go. About that same time the 2nd rider also pulled out and made an attack. I was coming from the back and had to move over the top of all the riders. I quickly got around the Air Force rider and the rider who had been leading the whole time in the sprinter's lane, but the lead rider had a decent gap from his acceleration out of the draft. He went on to take 9th place and I held on strong to the finish line to edge out the Air Force guy for 10th place in the match sprint tournament. Definitely not how I expected the whole thing to go down and really wish I could get another shot at it. Oh well, so it goes. I definitely learned some things though, so that's always good.
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DAY 2:
Since I was out of the sprint tournament and wasn't racing the points race, I only had one race on Friday and it was the individual pursuit. It's a solo time trial race around the track for 12 laps or 4 kilometers as fast as you can go starting from standing still. I didn't have high expectations for my finish in this event, but definitely wanted to set a nice PR. While I did set a PR of 5:18, it wasn't nearly as fast as I was expecting to go. Looking back at the splits, I had a perfectly mirrored race. My kilometer times were: 1:13, 1:22, 1:22, 1:13. My first and 4th kilometer times of 1:13 were the 4th fastest times on the day. My middle two kilometers are what killed me though. I guess I took it too easy on those fearing burnout in the last few laps of the race. Should have turned it up sooner, but the burning in my hamstrings and glutes were telling me not to. I don't think I had been that low and flexed on the bike since I raced the state championship track event.
My time put me in 41st place for the pursuit which meant I still scored some points. Since the pursuit counts as an endurance event, I know had scored points in both a sprint event and an endurance event which qualifies me for the overall individual omnium. By the end of the day Saturday I was in 18th place for the overall.
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