All done. The madison was yesterday and wasn't stellar for us but was still probably my best race yet. We were really aggressive in the first half of the race, attacking for the first points sprint and getting to about 2/3 of a lap up. At that point the field turned the screws to bring us back and that was about it for our race. We attacked a lot more and won more points, but that was our chance at the win. If we had a few exchanges that were crisper and worked the leg speed more I think we would have made the lap. That doesn't really do us much good now, but it does offer some insight into what to work on in the future.
In the end we were 6th, which is less than I was hoping for but we still had a good race. Afterwards we both talked to the new endurance coach who said we're on their long list of riders for a national madison team. So we might be back in LA in about two months for a madison camp and the last chance at qualifying for the talent pool this season.
We're now in Santa Monica with some buddies of mine, cruising around Venice Beach by day and going to dubstep concerts at night. All our gear went back with team Rubicon yesterday and we're flying home tomorrow. For a play-by-play of all the events go to www.fixedgearfever.com and click on the nationals coverage.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Friday, October 5, 2007
I think Garfield (the cat, not the president) once said that if you set your expectations low enough you'll never be disappointed. With that in mind, maybe at this point it's time to rethink my strategies for these races. Today's points race was a step in the right direction over the last two days, but still not what I had been hoping for coming into nats. It's a bit of a mystery why I haven't been feeling it since I was setting all kinds of power PRs in the month before nationals. But somehow the legs have just been completely absent this whole week.
The points race qualifiers were early in the morning, and both Dan and I qualified while Alan narrowly missed out. The qualifiers were surprisingly fast this year, and even guys like Huff and McCook didn't make it in. In the final heat some didn't make it even after lapping the field twice. I actually felt pretty good in the final, and rode a fairly aggressive race but couldn't quite line up my attacks with the flow of the race. Twice the counters to my moves got away and lapped, and somehow I was never attacking during the points. In hindsight I should have layed low for a while to get in sync with the sprint laps, but I was really gunning to take a lap since that seemed like my best shot at a top-5 compared to duking it out in the sprints. In the end that strategy didn't pay off.
Tomorrow is the madison and Dan and I are looking for some redemption. It's not clear yet whether there will be qualifying heats or simply a final, but either way we'd like to ride an aggressive race and shoot for a podium spot. I guess that runs counter to my opening aphorism, but at this point there's not much to lose.
Oh, in perhaps the most immediate realization of karma in the history of the world, someone stole both of our pee bottles. It's more than a bit surprising since they were both clearly marked with Mr. Yuk faces. And whether the scoundrel uses them for drinking or for peeing, a pee bottle seems like something you wouldn't want to double dip. Like recycling chamois cream, dentures, or thongs.
The points race qualifiers were early in the morning, and both Dan and I qualified while Alan narrowly missed out. The qualifiers were surprisingly fast this year, and even guys like Huff and McCook didn't make it in. In the final heat some didn't make it even after lapping the field twice. I actually felt pretty good in the final, and rode a fairly aggressive race but couldn't quite line up my attacks with the flow of the race. Twice the counters to my moves got away and lapped, and somehow I was never attacking during the points. In hindsight I should have layed low for a while to get in sync with the sprint laps, but I was really gunning to take a lap since that seemed like my best shot at a top-5 compared to duking it out in the sprints. In the end that strategy didn't pay off.
Tomorrow is the madison and Dan and I are looking for some redemption. It's not clear yet whether there will be qualifying heats or simply a final, but either way we'd like to ride an aggressive race and shoot for a podium spot. I guess that runs counter to my opening aphorism, but at this point there's not much to lose.
Oh, in perhaps the most immediate realization of karma in the history of the world, someone stole both of our pee bottles. It's more than a bit surprising since they were both clearly marked with Mr. Yuk faces. And whether the scoundrel uses them for drinking or for peeing, a pee bottle seems like something you wouldn't want to double dip. Like recycling chamois cream, dentures, or thongs.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Nicht so gut
Things weren't stellar today. Dan experimented with a big gear in the pursuit, went out flying then hit a big wall the final km. He was third in qualifying which of course isn't bad, but he missed the time standard time by 7 hundredths of a second and almost certainly would have made it with a different gear. The feds talked to him afterwards but weren't very sympathetic... all they commented on was how close he came and what a shame it was.
The scratch race heats were the usual negative style of miss n' out racing. Alan was in the first heat and was racing well but missed a split halfway through the race and had to spend some time working in a chase group. The split came together and he was up there in the sprint, but was just a little boxed in and finished just outside the qualifying positions. There was no keeping him down though, as a surprise visit from his wife and his first mass start event on the boards made him a pretty happy man.
I was in the final heat, and things didn't go much better. My legs felt like I hadn't ridden in weeks, so I was really conservative and tried to just follow wheels and hope they were the right ones. I was surprised that the field didn't seem to pay any attention to who was rolling away... they would chase random guys like their lives depended on it then let Roman Kilun and Jaques-Maynes just ride off the front. I tried getting in a few moves but no one was working and everyone was chasing. The final sprint wasn't very fast but it was three-up and I was stuck in the poll lane, so there wasn't anywhere to go. These qualifying heats seem to play out like elimination races, and it's easy to ride the whole race, not qualify, and still not feel like you ever did anything. The points race is tomorrow and I'm more enthused about that, so we'll see what happens. Hopefully the jello will be shaken out of my legs by then...
The scratch race heats were the usual negative style of miss n' out racing. Alan was in the first heat and was racing well but missed a split halfway through the race and had to spend some time working in a chase group. The split came together and he was up there in the sprint, but was just a little boxed in and finished just outside the qualifying positions. There was no keeping him down though, as a surprise visit from his wife and his first mass start event on the boards made him a pretty happy man.
I was in the final heat, and things didn't go much better. My legs felt like I hadn't ridden in weeks, so I was really conservative and tried to just follow wheels and hope they were the right ones. I was surprised that the field didn't seem to pay any attention to who was rolling away... they would chase random guys like their lives depended on it then let Roman Kilun and Jaques-Maynes just ride off the front. I tried getting in a few moves but no one was working and everyone was chasing. The final sprint wasn't very fast but it was three-up and I was stuck in the poll lane, so there wasn't anywhere to go. These qualifying heats seem to play out like elimination races, and it's easy to ride the whole race, not qualify, and still not feel like you ever did anything. The points race is tomorrow and I'm more enthused about that, so we'll see what happens. Hopefully the jello will be shaken out of my legs by then...
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
T Minus One
As has become nationals tradition, Dan and I broke down and shaved our arms. It was an important part of the mental preparedness process and I think a good team building excercise as well. Though, I will point out, we shaved only our own arms, and as a rule there was no back and forth shaving. There was especially no )) <> (( back and forth forever. Lunch to the first person to name the movie reference.
In any case, the travel down was really straight forward and the only hitch was we didn't get any track time. For some reason they strictly closed the track at 4pm to some people but then other people continued to ride? It's not the strangest thing USA Cycling has done. No, that dubious honor went their registration "system" that required about five minutes per person to pick up numbers. So instead of riding at the track we just stood in line at the track watching other people ride for about 45 minutes. I think had we been in bike shorts we could have counted it as a ride, but no such luck.
So, our day ended with an exciting team roller workout in the parking lot of our hotel, followed by an even more exciting trip to the grocery store on track bikes. The room is a little tight but at least we have a kitchen. And we also still have eachother. I'm secretly hoping that after having all of our Tiemeyers together in the corner for a week maybe by the time we leave there will be a little baby 650c Tiemeyer. We'll see what happens.
Tomorrow = Mass Start Test and Team Pursuit, then they're going to resurface the track for the Thursday session. Why? Because tomorrow we're going to tear it up. Okay done.
In any case, the travel down was really straight forward and the only hitch was we didn't get any track time. For some reason they strictly closed the track at 4pm to some people but then other people continued to ride? It's not the strangest thing USA Cycling has done. No, that dubious honor went their registration "system" that required about five minutes per person to pick up numbers. So instead of riding at the track we just stood in line at the track watching other people ride for about 45 minutes. I think had we been in bike shorts we could have counted it as a ride, but no such luck.
So, our day ended with an exciting team roller workout in the parking lot of our hotel, followed by an even more exciting trip to the grocery store on track bikes. The room is a little tight but at least we have a kitchen. And we also still have eachother. I'm secretly hoping that after having all of our Tiemeyers together in the corner for a week maybe by the time we leave there will be a little baby 650c Tiemeyer. We'll see what happens.
Tomorrow = Mass Start Test and Team Pursuit, then they're going to resurface the track for the Thursday session. Why? Because tomorrow we're going to tear it up. Okay done.
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