Week in Review

It’s been a good week.

Things started out a bit rough on Saturday with the Rehearsal road race. I DNF’ed after getting dropped, chasing back on and then getting dropped again. Consequently I will not be at Silverton this weekend.

Sunday I woke up early, went over to my grandmother’s house for breakfast and them made it to church in the morning. I met up with Andrea while it was pouring down and we drove down to Albany where the weather was much nicer. The crit course down there was stellar. It was a six corner “L” course with wide streets and a great surface. The race was good. Rubicon kept everything in control, but a crash with 7 laps to go took a few contenders out of the race. I ended up placing 2nd behind Nick and got a little cash to boot.

Tuesday PIR was fast this week. Doug, Evan and Jason were there and Doug seemed to fixed on making things hard. In the end John and Jacob got off the front. Evan shot out of the field going through the last corner. I took the bait, caught his wheel and then went for it with 250 meter to go. I was a few meters behind Jacob at the finish and got third.

Wednesday Andrea and I went to see Jimmy and Alynda for the last time before they move to Arizona. It is sad that they are leaving. I will miss you guys, and Charlie.

The possibility of racing on the track Thursday was not looking good at all in the morning. But it stopped raining around 10 and then the sun actually came out for a bit that evening. Tony and I prowled around in the Cat 1/2 omnium, finishing 1st and 2nd. The Dans and Veed did the Cat 4 race and put on a great circus show, placing 1st, 3rd and 4th in the omnium.

I have also been working to put together a track race this week. It is happening next Sunday, June 8th. Check out the flyer for more info. http://www.obra.org/track/flyers/2008/alpenrose_heartbreaker.html

Pursuit 2.0, Sprints and the weekend

Pursuit 2.0 went a lot better than the first one. My splits were steady, my legs felt good, my time was much better and it was not 55 degrees. I rolled a 3:53.08, 7 seconds faster than the week before, which put me in 2nd place for the night behind Per. But I did get to ride against Markwelder, who in his first Pursuit ever did a 3:56 for 4th place.
Sprints on Friday was fun. Mark decided to come out too and try his hand at some fast twitch racing. I had to do a 200 and put down a 12.09 which put me in the first sport in the A group. Mark’s 200 was like watching a puppy run with paws that are way too big. He did a 13 something with bad form and was placed in the B group. Both Dans, David and Matt showed up for the beginner races, but only Matt and David got in because the field filled up. The A group was good, but some of the good sprinters like Brian and Stephen did not show up. My evening included sitting around the infield talking to Mark and the other lovers, and then getting up to ride three laps. Repeat three times. My last ride was against Kevin Mansker. After watching him do his two races, I confirmed he really only has one more, which was ramping it up with a lap to go and then putting in a big acceleration on the back straight to pull ahead. I figured I could match that acceleration, but was not too confident that I could come around if I was still behind him. So, the last race went something like this.
Kevin draws front position and rolls out very slowly. I take about three pedals, see he is just looking at me and then I jump hard. He jumped too, but I had a gap. Knowing he would catch me, I don’t exactly keep it full throttle, but just enough to keep him chasing me down hard. Coming into corner one on the second lap, I rip up track and then down track to get on him wheel. At this time, Kevin keeps the pace up and rolls around to get the bell with me on his wheel. I come up next to him exiting corner two. He tries hi s back straight acceleration, but perhaps found his match was burnt in the first lap. I stay with him, and then I accelerate.
I got a bit on color form the sun on our ride Saturday. Saltzman, Skyline, Rock Creek, Skyline. Do you see the trend? Yes, it was hilly, but I never expect anything different from the Lovers. Pete Groblewski came out with us and we made things fun with some mad cat and mouse racing along Skyline.
I took Sunday off and spend the day with Andrea and my family. We took the train up to Seattle, bought some beers and watch a Mariners game. It was a good time and the first baseball game that Andrea had ever been to.

Who is that pink flash in the night??

I had a great time in Seattle on Friday. Andrea and I drove up there in the morning and I spend the day in our office in downtown Seattle while Andrea spent some time at the Pike Place market.

It was pre-season racing at Marymoor, but the attendance was still good. In the A race, about half the field was Hagens-Bermans guys, while Gregg's had three guys (Nick, Leif and Grant) then there was a few odd guys including Kenny and myself. We had a 12 lap scratch race, a 12 lap tempo race and a 25 lap points race on the schedule. The scratch race was fast with Hagens throwing people off the front the whole race. At one point there was two of them off, including Adrian, and Kenny jumped to bridge up. Knowing this could be a good break, I jumped a bit later and caught up to them. Andrea told me later that the announcer had no idea who I was at first and was asking who that pink flash in the night was. After seeing who I raced for, I was known as the Gentle Lover for the rest of the night. Anyways, I placed third in the scratch.

The Tempo was okay, Leif, Adrian and I got away for a bit, but I didn't get too many points and don't know where exactly I placed overall.

The points race was good, I got points on every sprint, but just couldn't ever come around Kenny for maximum points. I think I placed third in that race behind Kenny and Grant.

It was a good night of racing, but it was very cold as we got done around 10:00 under the lights. Next time I have to remember to bring a lot of warm clothes.

Ravensdale did not go too well. My alarm did not go off, so I didn't even make it to the start.

May 15th

Thursday
Sunny. Highs around 80.

We shall see. If so, it will be a hot circuit race for the guys and girls doing Mt. Hood.

I'm going up to Seattle this weekend to race Friday night at Marymoor and Saturday at the Ravensdale Road Race. I will let you know how it goes.

Eric Kautzky

Unfortuantly the weather was not great yesterday and we did not get to finish the whole omnium that was to make up the Eric Kautzky memorial race. But we did get to finish the 40 lap points race that would decide the winners of the race. Mark and I had perfect team tactics during the race and were on the attack the entire time. We ended up first and second with Mark defending his title from last year.
Watts, Veed, Danimal and Cabana Boy came out to play in the cat 5 and cat 4 fields and each of them got a podium spot too.

It's begun

It was as if the entire sky had been waiting for months for May 1^st to come around. And it welcomed the many brave riders who gathered at Alpenrose with warm rays of sunshine. Last night was opening night at our little track and everyone was in great spirits and happy to be riding brakeless bikes ones more.

It was an especially big night for Andrea as it marked her first time of being back on the track after being sidelined with knee injuries for over a year. She came out with a bang, riding a near perfect 500 and posted the fastest time of the evening with 40.9 seconds. With a little technique work and some more intensity training that will come later in the year, she will be well under 40 seconds by the time AVC rolls around.

With a full schedule of racers out for the evenings events, 75 racers in all, it was long wait until I finally got to take my shot at the kilo TT. Kilos in May are always interesting and this one was no different. It was the first time this year that I had ridden my race gear. Actually, the first pedal of my race was the first time on that gear this year. My race went fairly well, although my head was not really in the game. My start felt strong and my pace felt steady, but I did not feel really explosive. I actually felt more like a pursuiter, floating my pedal strokes often, than an explosive kilo rider. My last lap was hard, but I didn’t feel as taxed as I normally do and I was able to keep the pace steady. I rolled in with a 1:11.60. It’s a good time, but not quite as fast a the 1:11.08 I did last year in May.

Mass start racing starts tomorrow at the Eric Kautzky Memorial race. My teammate Mark will be looking to defend his title, so I will most likely be playing a good teammate and hopefully we can put the hurt on some people.