Team Get A Grip Cycles made its track debut last weekend in Southern California at the San Diego and Encino velodromes. Josh and I raced in San Diego on Friday night, followed by Encino on Saturday evening, got some track time at ADT on Sunday afternoon and finished off the weekend with Josh racing in San Diego on Tuesday night.
SAN DIEGO - Friday, May 2nd
Leaving Arizona on Friday morning with carne asada burritos (yum!) in tow, we arrived in San Diego just in time for Friday night racing. Luckily people in San Diego operate on 'San Diego Time' which means a race scheduled for 6:30 will start around 7. Maybe. This was the first night of their Friday night series and the field sizes reflected this. I was the only woman there and raced with the B's and Josh raced with the A's, total field sizes of about 7-10 for both of us. I was a little more nervous than my usual pre-race nervous -- it was my first day of track racing since last October, only my 2nd time on a track in 2008 and I had never ridden on that track before. The night ended up being a blast and an awesome way to ring in the 2008 track season. The vibe in San Diego is really laid back and reminds me a lot of Kenosha (Washington Park Velodrome) except it has awesome views and ocean breezes. A little about the San Diego Velodrome, it is 333.3m with 27 degree banking in the turns. For reference our local parking lot, I mean velodrome, Northbrook is 382m with 17 degree banks and is so memorable the announcers had a hard time figuring out the nearest track to Chicago. To Northbrook's credit, the surface is great, it's open all the time for training, the turnout for Thursday night racing is usually great and the racers are awesome. Also where else in the country will you have 17 year cicadas land on your chain when you line up for a race? Perhaps if Chicago gets the Olympics we will have a world class, INDOOR velodrome ... sigh ... one can dream.
We started the night off with a motor paced warm-up and then moved on to a Miss-n-Out. I did pretty well in this race and made it to the final 3 and got 2nd in the final sprint. I quickly learned which two guys I needed to watch that night. The next race was a Win-n-Out, my least favorite of the mass start events. Places are determined by winning laps, so the first contested lap the winner wins the race, the 2nd is for 2nd place, etc. I thought I could go for 2nd but found myself sitting fourth wheel when the pace picked up on the 1st place lap and then stupidly led out a guy for 3rd place so I had to settle for 4th. Blah finish for a blah race. The final race of the night was a 24 lap Prime Race, which is not an 'official' race. The organizers in San Diego are trying to entice people to race on Fridays by offering a lot of primes. So basically this race was a mix of a Scratch Race and a Tempo (where each lap is contested, 1st person gets 2 points, 2nd gets 1 point) but instead of points, the lap winners got $2 and $1 respectively. I usually see primes as a great way to tire out people and so will sit in and save myself for the finish. Pretty early on in our race 2 guys got off the front and won probably 17 of the 24 laps. Those of us in the pack slowly reeled them in, I never felt nervous about catching them and just wanted to position myself well for the final sprint. Well we caught them with 3 or 4 laps to go and then everyone just sat up! Ack! One of the guys in the break was on my 'guys to watch' list and he got 2 laps of rest well the rest of us just pulled him around. What a mistake! In retrospect I should have just killed it after we caught them, but instead we pulled around the eventual winner. Live and learn. I think I ended up getting 2nd in the B's Omnium. Josh did pretty well in the A's. His competition included former multi-time World Champion and British National Champion Shaun Wallace.
ENCINO - Saturday, May 3rd
Next up was Encino (LA) and the So Cal Cup #2 - Long Rider Endurance Omnium on May 3rd. Oh yeah endurance events, my kind of racing. The schedule called for 3 races but unfortunately all fields only did 2 races due to time constraints. I guess getting a 3 race endurance omnium done in 4 hours with nine separate fields was a little ambitious, but the attempt was much appreciated! I was pleasantly surprised to find out my field would have 13 women, which is, as crazy as it sounds, a great field size for women's track racing. I scoped out my competition and asked my LA friends, Jack and Megan (Swarm!) who to keep an eye on. The obvious answer was Becky Lang, who is racing for the Home Depot Center (ADT), was and still is the series leader and who's teammates include Catherine Fiedler and Cassandra Holman. Yes, watch her, most definitely. Megan also told me to watch "the girl on the Teschner". And of course, Cathy Keeley, California State Master's Champion in a number of events.
The night started out with a 10km Points Race. Encino is a 250m track so our race was 40 laps with points every 10 laps (awarded 5, 3, 2, 1). The race was pretty typical in that the pace the first few laps was pretty moderate until someone attacked a few laps in. Here's where my memory gets a little fuzzy. I think a few people were off the front and I was part of the group chasing them down. And then at some point with about 4 laps to go before the points I looked back and saw I had created a gap of about 20m. This is when it becomes awesome to be the racer that no one knows, they had no idea what I was capable of and no one seemed too into chasing me down. And Megan also blocked for me! What an awesome friend! So I just hammered it for the remaining laps and got 5 points. Awesome! I thought to myself, "there is no way they're going to let that happen again". Well, low and behold I found myself off the front again with 4-5 laps to go for the 2nd round of points. This is not exactly where I wanted to be with that many laps to go. There was a pretty steady headwind coming out of turn 4 all the way into turn 1 and I started really feeling it with about 1 lap to go, but I tried my best to ignore my legs and just pedaled. Back in the pack, Becky Lang was having absolutely nothing to do with the pack's lolly-gagging and caught me with less than a lap to go. So I got 3 points there. One of my problems with Point's Races is keeping track of other people's points. I knew I would place as long as I got points but I had no idea who was getting 2nd-4th behind me. I ended up taking 4th in the final two sprints and ended up getting 3rd in the race. After the Point's Race everyone seemed a little more loose and I met "the girl on the Teschner". Her name is Shane and that was her 3rd track night ever. Wow, is she strong.
Susie Avchen, me, Becky Lang eyeing me from below, Cathy Keeley.Our next race was a 5km Scratch Race. I put myself in the back, right on Becky's wheel. After a few laps, I started thinking that she most certainly had a better jump than I (she's a sprinter after all) so perhaps being at the back of the pack was not the best place for me. I caught her talking to Shane and figured they were going to try something. Sure enough a lap later coming out of turn 2, Becky, Shane and another woman surprised the field and got a bit of a gap. Luckily it only lasted for a lap or so. The rest of the race was not very memorable, at least to me a week later writing this. Megan ended up picking up the pace in the front for the remaining 5ish laps. I was second wheel and while I was really happy she blocked for me in an earlier race, there was absolutely no way I was going to let myself take over her spot in the front. With about 2 laps to go I pulled up a little, not wanting to get boxed in. Soon after that Becky, Cathy and Susie came around and I knew that was it. I caught on their wheels and tried to get around Susie for 3rd place, but ended up 4th in a pretty tight 1st-4th finish. I'm pretty happy with my finish in the omnium but kind of kicking myself because had I earned one more point in one of the races I would have been in a 3-way tie for 2nd and two more points would have put me in solo 2nd place. But that's all moot really, I had such an awesome time racing at Encino with a really great field. I'll be heading back there for sure.
A Very Brief Wrap-Up For Josh
Since Josh is currently out of the country drinking wine and watching the Giro live, I can't transcribe for him. Needless to say he did really well at Encino racing in the 1/2 field with 11 other guys. Being a sprinter he obviously doesn't get as giddy as I do for the endurance events but he still does them, and races really well. He finished the night in a tie for 4th in the Omnium. His field had some strong racers, Kit Karzen, Danny Heeley and Travis Smith, to name a few.
Kit Karzen (overall series leader), Josh, Danny Heeley (series sprint leader)I think, rather I know, his proudest moment of our trip was in San Diego on Tuesday night. The night was pure sprinting events: 200m TTs, Match Sprints, a Keirin, and a Chariot Race. Josh ended up placing 1st in the A's Omnium for the night! By far the best of our results for the weekend.
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