William (hoodoohoo), from Saturday at 6:04PM. William's guess of 99 pairs was closest, so he wins a care package of SockGuy socks (one pair of Masi socks of course) and a new Kryptonite lock. William- either drop me a comment with an address or shoot me an email at tjackson (at) MasiBikes (dot) com. And congratulations!
For those who seek the answer to all questions in the universe- the answer is 102 pairs of SockGuy socks; 101 in the drawer and the one pair I was wearing when I took the picture. Yeah, I know... I got a problem.
As for the racing today...
The weather was warmer than I thought it would be and the winds were almost non-existent. Essentially, a prefect day at the track. I did decide to race in the B field, rather than the A's. I knew I wasn't going to be competitive in the A's and I was totally unsure of what the tail bone injury was going to be like at race pace on a fixed gear (versus riding on my own with a geared bike).
The first race was the motorpaced burnout. The C group did 20 laps and then the B's, riding behind the C's, did an additional 20 laps. I managed to hold on through the C's and then made it until about 2-3 to go in the B race before I was just too spun out at race pace. My 88" gear felt small for the speed we were going and it was clear that some of the other riders had been doing some motorpace workouts already and had the flow better than I did. Still, I was happy to have made it that far.Next up was a Triple Sprint. Basically, it's a 12 lap race. Sprints every 3rd lap, with a "neutral" regrouping lap in between. So you get three sprints and a couple regrouping laps. Points are scored on each Sprint, 5 deep. I think I got a 3rd, 4th and 5th and I was surprised I got that. At race pace, on the fixed gear, the tail bone hurts like crazy. After the triple Sprint, I could feel the swelling beginning.
Lastly, we did a 30lap (10Km) Scratch race. I figured I'd be out in 15- 20, so I was pretty pleased that I ended up finishing the whole race and getting 4th or 5th. Again, when the pressure was on the pedals, the pain was pretty bad and I could sense the power output dropping (though that may have been a psychological response to the pain). I was happy with how I rode and was pleased with the slight "attack" I made halfway through. Basically I just took a 2 lap pull and raised the pace a little... but I didn't barf or fall out of the race... so I was pleased.
In the end, though it hurt a lot more than I thought it would, I was happy that I raced and effectively doubled the number of races I did last year. Hey, small steps people... small steps. One other cool note was that my cousin Steve, who is also a cyclist, was there for the first couple races- watching from his bike. Steve is the first cyclist I ever rode with when I moved to California in 1986 and he's a good guy to boot, so it was great to see him there. (Hopefully he wasn't embarrassed.)William- drop me a line so I know where to send your prizes.
I hope everybody enjoyed their weekends!
Tim
2 comments:
Wasn't embarrassed at all. Good to hear you had some good placings.
S
Tim, how do I get a cicling kit with the masi logo on it? It's too damn hard to represent!
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