I sat in 90min of creeping traffic Thursday afternoon just so I could race at the track for the first time this season. Opening night at the track was really about a month ago but cold weather and travel have kept me away until this past week. I made the mistake of taking the top off my Jeep so I just sort of cooked in the heat and humidity the entire trip while sipping fierce melon Gatorade and blasting some R.E.M. and Green Day loud enough for the entire North Shore to appreciate.
Racing-wise I wasn't quite sure what to expect of myself as I'd not been feeling so good the entire previous week. Temps were in the 80s and the humidity was pretty stifling so warming up was easy. I wasn't feeling the best but my sprint acceleration was decent so I was thinking that a respectable performance was possible. I'd pondered racing with the men but I wasn't feeling very brave so I stuck with the women's field since the turnout was pretty good. On the schedule for women were a Danish (win-and-out), 24 lap points race (sprints every 3rd lap) and unknown distance. I don't make a habit of racing all three sessions as it tends to make for a long night and a lousy Friday morning so I just did the first two races.
I won the Danish pretty easily - I was surprised that no one really chased when I attacked between turns 1 and 2 on the 4th lap. I really wanted the racing to be hard so when the points race started I went to the front (on the neutral lap...) and pushed the pace, eventually taking the cash primes and 7 of the 8 sprints. That race just cooked me. I didn't look behind me very much but I'm pretty sure the pack was shattered early. I just kept trying to drive things and score sprint points and it all worked out well for me.
I was still pretty toasted on Friday morning when I headed to the lakefront path for an easy ride. In fact I was still so fried that I rode for only about 2 minutes with a couple of the MetLife studs before just turning around and heading home to put my feet up, recover and rehydrate. Sorry guys - I was hurting pretty bad and I'm still not quite better yet even today (Saturday).
The heat and humidity is killing me right now so I'm trying to just rest and prepare for the upcoming week of racing in Minnesota. Not sure I'll have a chance to update the blog while I'm gone but if I do, I'll be sure to provide a daily summary of the joy and suffering part of stage racing that I've come to love so much. Thanks for reading....
Racing-wise I wasn't quite sure what to expect of myself as I'd not been feeling so good the entire previous week. Temps were in the 80s and the humidity was pretty stifling so warming up was easy. I wasn't feeling the best but my sprint acceleration was decent so I was thinking that a respectable performance was possible. I'd pondered racing with the men but I wasn't feeling very brave so I stuck with the women's field since the turnout was pretty good. On the schedule for women were a Danish (win-and-out), 24 lap points race (sprints every 3rd lap) and unknown distance. I don't make a habit of racing all three sessions as it tends to make for a long night and a lousy Friday morning so I just did the first two races.
I won the Danish pretty easily - I was surprised that no one really chased when I attacked between turns 1 and 2 on the 4th lap. I really wanted the racing to be hard so when the points race started I went to the front (on the neutral lap...) and pushed the pace, eventually taking the cash primes and 7 of the 8 sprints. That race just cooked me. I didn't look behind me very much but I'm pretty sure the pack was shattered early. I just kept trying to drive things and score sprint points and it all worked out well for me.
I was still pretty toasted on Friday morning when I headed to the lakefront path for an easy ride. In fact I was still so fried that I rode for only about 2 minutes with a couple of the MetLife studs before just turning around and heading home to put my feet up, recover and rehydrate. Sorry guys - I was hurting pretty bad and I'm still not quite better yet even today (Saturday).
The heat and humidity is killing me right now so I'm trying to just rest and prepare for the upcoming week of racing in Minnesota. Not sure I'll have a chance to update the blog while I'm gone but if I do, I'll be sure to provide a daily summary of the joy and suffering part of stage racing that I've come to love so much. Thanks for reading....
