Friday Night Racing at Marymoor

Emy had her last Kiddie Kilo of the season, and was looking primed to be fast, with full cupcake team regalia. She started 2nd from the back of her field of seven 6-to-7 year olds, and jumped hard right from the word go! By turn one she was in 2nd place, and by the back stretch she was out front, and extended her lead all the way to the end. When she crossed the finish, the next closest rider, her recent-friend Annika (daughter of Ed Amdahl of Starbucks) had not yet entered turn four, for a clear victory, with Annika taking an awesome 2nd. Bree and I were super happy for our little Bean, since she was pretty disappointed in her Pee Wee graduation race. Hopefully there will be a new picture on WheelsInFocus soon.

I was a little worried about my night as I had done Madison training both Tuesday and Thursday nights, and it was quite the workout. But, without further ado...


Here's what I emailed the team for my race report:

We had another fabulous night of racing by the left-turning tomatoes!

Our Cat 3 squad was represented by Jerry, John, Niels, Ted and Travis, with Chris and Mark in the Cat 1,2's. Mark was looking at a heck of a night for his first foray into the 1,2's field including a Miss n' Out, and a Madison! More on that later.

First up for the 3's was a 10-lap snowball, which historically has been a good one for Cucina. Tonight was no exception. Travis got off in a break, solo, scoring some points, later joined by others, and then absorbed. But with a good stack of points, he just needed the 9 point and 10 point laps to go to riders who weren't a threat to him. Niels rose to the challenge and took the 9 point lap in a tight sprint, with the 10 point lap going to Simpson of Recycled. This gave Travis the big money for the first race of the night and also put Niels in 3rd place.

Next up was the 1,2's 12-lap scratch. With two prime laps splitting the field, it was awesome to see both Chris and Mark working together int he chase group trying to close the gap to the break late in the race. I'm sure Chris is happy to have company.

Next race for the 3's was a Miss n' Out, pulling down to 3 riders remaining. I had some demons to exorcise after last week, where I was the the crazy guy who surged from the back lap after lap. This time I worked hard to not be so close to the back, and for the most part it worked. I think Jerry was the first to get yanked, followed by John, surprisingly next was Travis, then Niels. I had found my wheel behind Selinski, who was sitting at the front, high on the track, which made the surge a relatively easy move from the 2nd row to the front each time. We were whittled down to four riders, and then I was just able to commit to one more surge to make the final three. We cruised our free lap, and I was happy they let me sit on the back. My plan was to sit on Vinson, knowing Selinski was tired from all his time at the front, and it worked, but I missed the win by a tire in the sprint (gotta learn to throw the bike). Still it felt good to be on the board. So now we had Travis with a 1st, me with a 2nd, and Niels with a 3rd.

The 1,2's had a Miss n' Out as well, with a fairly large field. I was just hoping our man Mark would make us proud and get past the first lap, which he did easily, getting pulled (just barely) as the 4th rider out. Chris was out next, looking plenty knackered - poor guy is feeling the pain of being a new teacher, with early rising, and didn't have much left in the tank. I hope you got home and went to sleep, Chris! At least Mark got plenty of rest before the Madison (good plan, Mark!)

Last race for the 3's was a 6x5 points race, which got shortened to a 5x5. With Travis, Niels and I sitting well for omnium, the plan was to take it all with a break that would hopefully include the three of us, and maybe one more rider. John and Jerry were to go for the first sprint to help keep it hot. We wanted to pull the same trick that Jason and I tried last week - take it easy for the first sprint, and then hit em right after the sprint - this time with a break of at least three. I managed to find Niels's wheel at the right moment, but the field was still moving pretty quickly after the first sprint, and Travis was still down low in the pack. Still, I moved up and went hard, hoping we could still salvage the plan at least in part. I only got away for a short bit, with a couple others, and then we were absorbed, and then Travis went hard with Vinson. The pack started sitting up, and Niels was near the front, so I bridged and the three of us came in for the next sprint - I got 2 points, and I think Vinson just beat Travis (but I'm not sure). Later, there were other loose break attempts, but nothing really stuck. I tried again to get a break going, but didn't get anywhere (other than airtime by Bilko). Selinski got a couple of points in some other sprints, and at this point I heard the points were really spread out - Bilko said TEN riders had points with one sprint to go. I was not terribly surprised as we were going at a fast clip the whole time. I was sure happy when Hyun took a flyer with 3 laps to go and I was able to jump on his wheel. I looked back and we had a solid gap, so I just sat on for 300 meters and he never pulled up track. With 1.5 laps to go, when I saw he was tiring, I went as hard as I could around him, hoping I could survive to the finish, or at least give Travis or Niels an armchair ride on someone else's wheel as they tried to chase. I was pretty cross-eyed by the end, but just managed to hold off the pack and win the last sprint.

Last race of the night was the 6x8 Madison, which, for those who haven't seen it, is the pinnacle of track racing. It's a points race, where each rider tag-teams with one other rider, making exchanges on every lap - one rider is "in the race", going full gas, while the other is "on relief" resting and riding high on the track, as slowly as possible until the "in the race" rider gets back around to them, where they tag off. This tag is typically a sling-throw that requires skill, bike handling, and timing. Mark teamed up with Jim (?) Flinn of Old Town and unfortunately had to take off the tomato (if only Jason could have made it tonight for his 2's debut). Holy moly that race was fast. It took Mark and Jim a couple of exchanges to get some kinks worked out, but they were solidly in 5th or 6th, trading leads with a Broadmark team. While they were out of the points sprints, they still kept it rolling and gave it their all to try and bridge the gap. As the race wore on, there were some seriously tired faces out there. Mark was looking pretty wasted, but we were sure proud to see him out there in this tricky event, looking like he belonged. Mark, I KNOW you'll sleep well tonight! Nice job.

Final results for the 3's put me in 3rd for omnium with two 2nd places (somehow Selinski had one more point that I did in the 5x5) and Travis in 4th. Hopefully that will yield enough points for us to close the gap to 1st place Broadmark in the team rankings, but if not, we should be within a point or two with two more nights of racing remaining. Between Mark, Jerry, John, Rebecca and maybe Travis on Wednesday in the Master's and Women's fields, and the Friday gang of 3's and 1,2's, I think we can do it!