Adventures of the Northwest

Wednesday Night Racing with 11 women...

The rain showers were on and off and more clouds were threatening. I got to the velodrome and maybe 4 people were there at 6:10 pm. Hardly anyone showed up until around 6:30 or later. Traffic was a nightmare as well and the Rob Thomas concert was starting (sweet to hear the concert for free from a distance!).

They didn't confirm racing 'til 7 pm until then I was standing around hoping it would get cancelled. I didn't get warmed up until 7:20 with the races starting at 7:30. Jane was still at work 'til 7.

We were informed one of the stronger women that has been racing with the masters but hasn't been racing due to an injury would be racing with us. She is on our team and didn't want to race against her husband since the Masters A and B fields were so small and they combined them. The first race was an 8 lap scratch. I did ok - came over a few people at the very end as I felt I had oomph and came in 4th which doesn't get any points but came in 4th instead of 7th or 8th or something. :) Our teammate kind of pulled off on the front and held it and the rest of the field was kind of slaughtered. Second race was an 8 lap snowball... I took the 5th lap which was worth 5 points. Then the 4x4 - I just didn't feel it in me and didn't really care... so I just did what I could do. Also, one of the Counterbalance girls crashed off turn 1. :( It was not a good night for her. I felt really bad for her. She lucked out with just some road rash. She is a great person and a great rider so I hope this will not deter her from still coming out. We had a lot of new people in the field and when the field slowed down they overlapped tires. Some of the women were having a hard time getting back into the race and Jane was yelling at them to stay in the race, get focused, hold their lines. I yelled a couple things as well but I was getting focused myself and thinking - until I hear a double gun shot we are racing still.

Overall for the night I placed 4th for the Omnium which means I got 1 or 2 upgrade
points(because of the field being 11 women it may be worth 2 points). So I did ok. :)

Teaching a track class on Saturday for women... and then Sunday doing my first road race. Not really nervous as I don't have any high expectations at all.

posted by Seattlebiker @ 8:23 AM