Race Night

I am starting to get the hang of cycling on the track.  Last night was another club race, I raced 4 events in the B grade.  My legs are getting faster when spinning up the pedals and I am learning some of the race tactics.  We raced a scratch race, a 2 lap handicap, an elimination race and finally another scratch.  The handicap was an exercise in pain, I just went for it from the gun as I was almost at the front with the start.  I took the lead quickly and just buried myself.  I was holding a 10 meter lead with 300 meters to go, but at about 150m to go I felt my leg speed coming down, and I was just about out of gas.  In the final corner I was caught and the race blew by me. 
The elimination was my best race, I manage to do pretty well in these races, even though sprinting every lap is painful.  I rode the race from the back and tried to do only as much as I had to to be ahead of the one rider that was eliminated.  One time I was boxed in on the sprint line and had to punch my way up through the center of the group.  After that I made sure I had room to go around up on the outside of the track.  When it got down 3 of us left the sprint was full out and it took a lot out of me, I managed to stay alive for the final lap, but was no competition for the end of the race.
The final scratch race was fun I think we did 18 laps.  I finally felt like I had some power in my legs and I was able to jump on attacks and stay in the race.  I was in poor position for the finish sprint, but I still came out in 5th place.  I am already looking forward to next week.

Adelaide: Day 5

Sunday morning finally arrived. The final day of the Tour was to be a Criterium race through North Adelaide, just on the other side of the river. Conveniently it was across the street from our hotel. After breakfast we grabbed the paper and a coffee and headed to the river bank to check out the set up for the day’s event. The sun was bright and strong so once we got the lay of the land we wandered around looking for some shade to sit and wait. We found a nice patch of grass in the park under a tree not far from the course, so we spread out the paper and read to pass the time.

The race was a 20 lap circuit and there were a number of contenders to take the stage. It took about 2 hours to complete the race and the Sky team pulled ahead to win. We stayed to watch the first of the awards and then went to the bar to award ourselves with a cold James Squire (our new favorite beer).