Good Times, Mediocre Times

There were a lot of racing options this weekend. Oddly, the weather looked like two of them would get rained out, but the OTHER one got dumped on. I think all velodromes should have a semi-permanent cyclocross course on hand, the first drop of rain and they shut it down, and your pre-race gameplan is all for nought.

Friday night racing at Northbrook: I'm still working on 10 starts for my upgrade, so I made it out for the first 'official' Friday night. Lightly attended with 14 elites and four juniors, but hey, it's still racing.

Five lap Tempo: I think I got top points three times, including the last lap, plus a second place and a prime. Win!

Unknown: Hassled the field with a solid tempo, attacked for a prime and stayed out for three laps around the 12 lap mark. Ring that bell! They didn't. I got caught. THEN they rang the bell. Salvaged it to come around to 3rd place.

20 lap points race: I took top points every time, and both primes. Game over.

I won the Omnium and walked away with $35. It's been a while since I've come out ahead at a race. It's also been a while since that cat 5 season when I came home with a prize for the kids almost every time, so it's nice to do that again.

Saturday, Ella opted out of Sherman Park and so did I. She wasn't at full energy, the weather was shaping up to be crap, and frankly, she wasn't really jazzed at the prospect of riding another TT as the only ten-year-old girl in the field, especially after they started a single 10-18s field at Monsters. Can't say I blame her. We'll find some appropriate competition for her one of these days.

Sunday was the Iowa Track State Championships (held in Kenosha, the closest track). I wasn't at full strength, but it was a solid day of firsts nonetheless. First flying 200: 13.62. First Kilo: 120:2. First 4k Pursuit: 5:38. First 'sanctioned' Match Sprint: 4th/8. First 'long' Points race: 60 laps! My times were thoroughly mediocre, but I finally got to clock some laps in the x-wing bars, a bit jarring on the fast bumpy track up there.

I won a solid match sprint, then went against Jeff, which was awesome, but I couldn't really imagine under what circumstances I could win. I attacked at the whistle...nope, he reeled me in. Thought about razoring, but he pushed me uptrack, bumping elbows at 20+ mph. I didn't really know what I was doing but I figured he was trying to school me on how the big boys do it, so I bumped back. Then he just ditched me with 200 m to go.

The points race was a bloodbath. 60 laps and maybe 7-8 riders. Lots of attacks, nowhere to hide. Technically it was a 3/4/5 race but Liam is practically a cat 2 in two disciplines and one of the racers was 50+, so there just wasn't anywhere to sit in, though Jeff hung back and helped me out for points when I lost the front of the race. I was hoping to just ride Liam's wheel for second, but this Iowa junior (and de facto State Champ) was sweeping up second place points. My attacks to drop him didn't pan out and I rode myself out of it. I finished third.

The junior, 50+, and organizer were the only Iowa residents so all three went home with medals. One little bonus: so many medals went unawarded, that two Silvers turned up laying around on the infield, so the kids did score a couple of souvenirs after all.