Things could be worse

Day one is in the books and things went okay. The feds are experimenting with a new schedule "system" (like their registration "system") which is to simply run all of the events in one giant session rather than the typical AM/PM split. So today we got to the track at 9:30am and got home at 6pm. Tomorrow should be even longer, with a full schedule of pursuits, scratch heats, keirin heats, and a sprints.

The Mass Start Tests were first, and went pretty poorly. In typical fashion, the format was changed prior to the start of the race without letting anyone know, so instead of three laps of windup before starting it was two, and the timing strip was moved down to just below the blue line. That's pretty abstract I know, but the overall effect is that you now have to essentially begin sprinting right from the rollout to get up to speed in time, where before you could float a bit before the opening jump... and you have to come down track a lot sooner to make the timing strip. The end result is that almost no one made the 500m times this year, where in previous runnings that was the easiest aspect of the event. 3k times also increased by a few seconds per rider as a result. I felt like crap and went slower than last year, which of course is never fun. I think the thing to take from it though is that USAC doesn't want anyone qualifying by the time standards anymore, since they both made the event harder to ride and made the times harder by a huge margin. So now they will parade their objective qualification system then simply default to a subjective coaches' selection when no one makes the times. Classy, as always.

The NW team pursuit team of Dan, Kenny, Jamie, and Tom Zirbel hung on for third against some solid competition. They looked content with their ride but clearly could have gone faster with some practice. Alan didn't do any racing today but thoroughly enjoyed his first outing on the boards and is gearing up for the pursuit tomorrow morning. I also made an important discovery that will greatly improve my quality of life over the next few days--that being a flawless pee bottle system so I don't have to leave the building and walk to the parking lot to use the portapoties. No pics of that system but photos from everything else above.