okay, so tonight was the usual tuesday night track racing at san diego velodrome.  i wasn't sure if i'd be recovered enough from the cyclovets omnium yet, but whatever - we'll give it a shot.

 

motorpaced warmup race - 2nd.  now, this is really more like a really long keirin - the motor gradually picks up speed for 40 laps, though.  At lap 38, the motor pulls off, and whoever is left gets 2 to go.  i was there, but had to bridge a gap going into the bell lap and got passed on the line.  all good, though.  the legs seemed to be going just fine.  sweet.

 

miss-n-out - 5th.  i was kind of bummed about this one, as i can usually make the final 3.  the competition was hard, though, so that wasn't too bad, really.  but i started feeling tired and was wondering if i should just call it an early night.

 

15-lap tempo - nothing.  the pace was quick, and i mostly just sat in the field.  for me to collect points in this race, i need to roll off the front, but i never did, and i still felt pretty tired.  ouch.

 

60-lap points race.

 

at this point, i asked the race director if we could simply do a 60-lap madison instead (that way I'd only have to ride half the distance - remember, i'm tired, folks).  no dice - points race it was.

 

for the first half of the race, i didn't do too much.  i partipated in some early sprints when i had the position, but tried not to bury myself too much.  about halfway through, though, a small group of us rolled off the front and proceeded to lap the field.  wow.  the 2nd half of the race was my awakening, and i scored 1st or 2nd in pretty much most of those sprints.  awesome.

 

just goes to show that even though you may be tired in the shorter races, the longer ones can still work to your advantage.  and that road and track can actually complement each other very nicely, too.  word.