06 January 2013

SSS Round 4

Well this was an odd day.

Tossing up what gear to ride in the morning, I ended up breaking my chain whip trying to take off the 14 to change up to a 13. Right you are then, I'll ride 95" then!

Got to the track slightly late and I think I assumed that I wouldn't have time for a warmup, and by the time I realised that I'd have plenty of time, I didn't anymore.

So I rolled out for the flying 200 not very ready, but still feeling okay - physically. Felt really uncomfortable on the bike though, and as soon as I went to jump it showed - really wobbly and was hardly transferring any power to the pedals. Rode a 14.087, slowest in B-grade - and I think there were some mutterings about putting me down in C, which would have been rather embarrassing. As it was I stayed at the tail of a 10-strong B-Grade.

I'm surmising that it's the absolute lack of training that left me not feeling comfortable on the bike. Of course, round 1 and 2 were the same, but round 1 I was riding 86" and spinning madly, whereas round 2 I was riding 102" for the flying 200, and able to just bludgeon the thing around the track. Trying to jump at 95", a nice middle gear, really showed me up. Of course that's what I raced on in round 2, but then, I didn't exactly race well then, either!

So anyway, not an auspicious start. But I'd already decided on my tactics - ride flying 200s. Okay, not quite precisely, but the general idea was to stuff all of this riding slowly and then jumping nonsense, because I'm really crap at that. And go from the front, whether I was drawn there or not, because if I get behind, I stay behind - at least, when I haven't been training, because I'm not comfortable enough on the bike to accelerate out of the saddle at speed. Anyone taking notes for the next round?

In my first race, against Paul Yeatman, I drew the lead and went for the aforementioned tactic, just winding it up and keeping him behind me. Coming out of turn 3 he came up to my hip a bit, which was good, let me keep a good eye on him and give me a chance to hook and drop in to 1. He managed to get back, but he stayed behind me and didn't jump underneath, so I just took the run through turn one and then very wobbily accelerated coming out of two. From there I just stayed ahead - watching the video Paul ran a bit wide out of 4 coming towards the line, but I had him by a good bike length. Excellent - my first 'sprint' victory in B.

Second race against Sam McCabe followed a similar script. I pushed the pace up a little higher though still not exactly TT pace, and kept Sam up towards the fence. He was sat beside me until turn three, when I pulled a little ahead and this time managed to keep him on my hip all the way back around to turn one. I gave a little hook, just enough to shy him off, but rather than dropping straight away I held him up a little to stop the natural drop in pursuit. My acceleration wasn't anything flashy, and he sat in my draft up the back straight before pulling around. This time it went right down to the line, but I managed to hold him off and won it on the throw. Two wins!

Third race up against Jarrod, who has changed so much in the last year he's (almost) unrecognisable. I had not much left for this one, but the plan was basically the same though I was nominally following. I knew he'd let me take the lead, and I did. Same idea, but not so good execution - I didn't keep a good enough eye on him, and I took too high a line in to turn 1. Too fatigued, not thinking so well. Watching the video is almost comical - took me a good couple of seconds to respond to his jump. I still managed to get down behind him just a couple of bike lengths back, but as soon as I went my quads were telling me that nothing was going to happen, and I abandoned the chase fairly early really. A win would have put me in to the 3v4 final... and to be honest, I don't think I wanted to be there. I had nothing left for the third race, the 4th would have been very embarrassing!

So that was the day - a couple of wins, and I had fun. Only one round left, and I'm going to do at least a couple of sessions to train for it, finish the season (in February??) on a high.

1 comment: