Race Reports by Don Gillmore

 

The past few weekends of racing have seen me rely a little more on my sprint than normal, which is due I think to it being called upon and exercised prior to that in some local track races, which may have awakened the sprint and beat back the time trial/pursuit legs a bit.

Here is a report on my experience of races at the FSA G.P. last weekend in the order they were ridden.

Friday afternoon
3km pursuit - 3:47 3rd place
I was not prepared to really suffer for the pursuit this day, probably because 1) I saw no chance of winning after Jason Sprouse posted a blistering 3:38, and 2) there was so much more racing to be done that I didn't want to bury myself for anything but top spot.

4km team pursuit - 4:47 2nd place
I really enjoyed the team pursuit. It was an impromptu get-together with 2 lower-mainlanders and an Albertan, and it went surpringly well considering. Apparently we were up on the winners for half the ride, probably due to me starting us off. I figured I could save us alot of time by not making the others wait to fall in line behind me, so I really gunned it hard at the very beginning of the start. And we were all using our individual pursuit gears, which felt too small during our ride but we weren't really serious anyway.

Friday night
Scratch race - 1st place
The scratch was the last race on Friday and the first race that went well for me. The previous miss-and-out (devil take the hindmost every lap) went terribly wrong. Last year at this event, I was able to get away with riding from the front, but this time I couldn't hold them off (better competition this time) and found myself in a dangerous predicament about half way through, boxed in with nowhere to go but back. So I backed out, went to the rail and gunned it. I thought I was called out but I was moronic for not noting my number before the race, so when I heard something that sounded remotely like my name over the sound system and thought it was mine, which it wasn't. I backed off from the race in error - d'oh! So I was quite determined for the scratch race, a group race of fixed distance where first-across-the-line wins, to put this behind me and let my legs bring me some good fortune. It was quite straightforward and relatively easy, although I found myself racing more like a sprinter than what I have been accustomed to during the last couple of years. Rather than push the pace I sat near the front determined not to let anyone get away so that I could sprint early and long to avoid traffic. Nobody got away, although somebody attacked with about a lap-and-a-half (600m) remaining. A bit later on the home straight (>1lap to go) I jumped from the outside, broke free, whizzed at top speed by the temporary leader on the back straight, opening up a huge gap on the pack, then soft pedaled to the line.

Saturday morning
I registered for the kilo and was originally stoked for it. It's been at least 16 years since doing one but I wanted to get an encouraging time, and the conditions weren't great. Also, the program wasn't leaving me time to eat once the 200 was done, and I felt that breakfast wasn't enough, so I decided to have a big meal while the kilos were being ridden and withdrew from the kilo before registration closed that morning.

200m sprint qualifier - #1 seed
This was confirmation of the Awakening of the Sprint Legs with an 11.39s time. Not as fast as I once was, but entering the ballpark. Pretty amazing considering that almost all of my training is specifically geared towards time trials. The big track helped me as one who mainly trains on the road, as it provided a huge straightaway for getting up to speed and a large radius turn which was easy on the g forces at speed.

Sprint rounds - winner
These were run back to back all day, which was great because they were close enough together that no warmup was required for each match once they were under way. I cruised through the rounds easily because there were no true sprinters in the Masters group. In hind sight I would have been better matched with the elite men but, having not entered a sprint competition for so many years, I didn't expect such a fast time or an easy victory. But I was thankful because after the scratch race victory I became more focused on the overall Masters Omnium title.

Saturday Evening
1st place Masters Keirin
The Keirin final was hairy; almost everyone false started without being noticed, leaving me in 7th spot out of 8 behinid the bike. I figured I could pull off a win from there on such a large track but these guys are faster than what I'm used to and with 500m remaining we were really hauling which worried me. I moved up to the outside with about 350m to go and started my gallop in the middle of the banking and then down the back straight, getting near the front but by then people were stacked up the track making their moves to pass, and I was forced above the stayer's line all the way around the banking, hammering for all I was worth but taking such a wide line I was not making up ground through the final turn until a thrust from gravity down onto the home straight rocketed me past everybody by a bike length, to the sound of a roaring spectator crowd.

The points race was fun and frustrating at the same time. It was important too, being the last race I knew a top 3 position would pretty well guarantee me the overall win. Being a points race, there was much sprint action and I was in on almost all of it, going with the attacks and going for and winning all the sprints except the second one, where I sat in for a rest. The race settled down after the first couple of points sprints, then I was off the front with David Klipper (strong, savvy and was at Worlds) and a third rider bridged to us. I was really happy with this of course, as I had the most points, followed by Klipper, and figured we could lap the field if we worked well. I was also hoping that there would be no sprinting for points among our breakaway trio at this stage, as it was not very far out front, but Klipper, in second position and me in third, made a move coming out of turn 3 so I responded and beat them both. Then we didn't regroup in time and got caught, the eventual winner attacked, teammate of Klipper's, I thought for sure there would be a response but there wasn't, and quickly he was way up there, too far for me to consider chasing on my own at the moment, and before he got too far, Chris A. was chasing him down so I didn't want to draw attention to that in case Chris was going for the win! Chris did catch him but wasn't able to stay on and drifted back to us later. I kept expecting some of the teams to push the pace or send riders to the front but they never did, and Klipper was doing a good job of blocking, so I was pretty well reduced to winning all of the pack sprints and praying we wouldn't get lapped, but our average speed was so slow ... I went to the front a few times and pushed the pace but it always ended when I pulled up track ... very frustrating - considering the points sprints, I wanted to maintain a certain amount of freshness for them and so wasn't willing to bury myself too much towing the group. But it was great fun anyway.

That was the most track racing I've ever done in one weekend I think.

Pictures here, here, here and here

Don

Podium shots of Schwalbe members (in full dress!) at the Nationals
http://www.wheelsinfocus.com/2008/pages/94AD9013fsa.htm

http://www.wheelsinfocus.com/2008/pages/94AD0873fsa.htm