Monday, January 23, 2012

BBN Track: 21/01/2012

23/01/2012 - Track | Race

Ol - Thurs night training

Summer of Track at BBN. B grade. Format: Scratch, Elimination Pursuit and Points Race.

Scratch: 15 Laps. Pretty sedate and orderly for 1st 3min. Kevin Murphy surged from the front at the 3:00 mark and I stuck to his wheel. Kev peeled off and pulled into a gap that had formed mid pack. I pulled my turn and rolled off to the back - pace settled down again. At 4:30 Rob Monteath attacked off the front and there was a period of off/on surging to chase back for about 60sec - somewhere toward the back of the paceline I just stayed with the surging, not overly concerned as there were still 4 or so laps remaining. With 1 lap to go the field was all together & I was around 4th wheel - an attack was launched from the front and I followed, holding my position until 30 meters to go where I came around into 3rd place and held it across the line. 3rd Place.

Elimination Pursuit: (Starting positions - riders staggered around the track. Aim: Do not be overtaken. If you are overtaken - you are eliminated. Every rider you overtake is eliminated.)
From the starters whistle I jumped quickly across to the wheel of the rider in front. Trying to hold it together after the initial red hot effort I kept an eye out behind for any riders catching - no immediate threats. Decided to sit on my front man and let him do the work of chasing the next rider down until there was a real threat from behind - then I'd then eliminate my front man and try to hold off the threat from the rear. After what seemed to be an eternity (at 2:50) my wheel in front was spent - still no threat from behind. I pulled around and settled into a fast tempo - was a ~70meter gap to next rider ahead (Zach MacLeod). Before long we were the last two riders remaining, and 3 laps were called. I strapped on my pain face and smashed out a maximal effort for the 3 laps - now riding solo, the strong headwind on the back straight was haenous, but I slowly gained on Zach and held it together for the win. 1st Place.

Points Race: 18 Laps. Legs bit spent now.. Sprints were at 11, 4 and 0 laps. I thought I crossed the line a comfortable 3rd for the first sprint - but in final results the commissar didn't see it that way. Next two sprints I think was 5th and 4th. Just no more punch in the pins... No place.

2nd overall.


Finally I have changed my gearing for the outdoor track (90.6 --> 86.4) & I think it's paying dividends. No longer have that feeling of not being on top of the gear - particularly in sprints. I think when I moved to 90.6 it was for racing at DISC and I was about 5kg heavier. I have to now persisted with this rollout all summer (outdoors) - which was pretty silly (strength work??)..


Chapeau to Brad James for a massive 2 lap effort off the front in A grade scratch race - nearly holding off the strong field in hot pursuit to the finish line!

Wishing Oliver, Connall & Sam a speedy recovery after a touch of wheels in F grade brought the boys down.

No comments:

Post a Comment