The Track Laboratory

Tonight was opening night at the Northbrook Velodrome and reminded me that I love track cycling. The races tonight were a 10 lap scratch, Miss-n-Out, and a 10 lap points. The scratch race was effectively a super short criterium on crack. A swarming pack and flurries of attacks created a race where I was never sure if I was off the front or dragging the peloton. Eventually, the final lap saw me sprinting from a few bike lengths behind a Cat 2 flyer and not quite catching him whilst being thrown on the line up track. Getting 3rd sucks, but it seems to be a theme for me:

The second race was a Miss-n-Out, which is track for hating on people in the back of the group. And making you cry, but that's another story. I was recovering well from the short efforts, so I decided to play it safe and waste energy in the wind to ensure that I made it to the final 3. After Surfing the boards for the first 11 pulls, things got serious and I had to drop the hammer on fools. Unsurprisingly the top 3 from the scratch made the selection for the end of the race. With 1.5 laps to go I got an unintentional 10ft gap on the other two and decided to have a go. If either of them hesitated I'd be gone, but sadly they did not, and caught me in turn 4 for another agonizing 3rd place finish.

The last race was a two-sprint points race. I tried to establish a break early and failed, so I ended up with 5th in the first sprint and 3rd in the final for 4th overall. That was a pretty poor performance, but I still netted 3rd in the omnium for the night, which comes with upgrade and rider of the year points.

Racing at Northbrook is a great way to get in touch with your strengths and weaknesses. Tonight I learned that 450m is way too far for me to try and stick an attack. 250m is probably my best bet in a situation where I want to launch an early dig. Also, I was able to recover and re-attack very quickly relative to the rest of the field, so expect me to try and shatter monsters with some repeated efforts and counter-attacks. Those little moves are inconsequential for me, but force new people to the front to close the gaps and allows my teammates to sit on. This ensures that everyone is good and tired when I go to whip them in the sprint.

Anyway, I encourage everyone to get out there at some point.