Wednesday (6/11/2008) Track Racing Report

Here's what I sent out to the team:

Last night was very frustrating. The intention was for me to get my 1 point needed to upgrade, and then work for John to get his 4, or at least some of them. In the unknown distance, we were definitely going to score a top placing for John, as I was driving a fast leadout with him on my wheel, and only two slower riders we were about to pass, only to get stymied by the guy (one of the slower riders) who took 1st for the omnium with some dangerous riding! He pulled up track out of the sprinters lane right as we were attacking on the backstretch in the final lap. Luckily, John and I went in opposite directions to go around him, or we might have had some squashed tomatoes. I was able to continue my sprint well enough to get 3rd, as I was lucky enough to get around the guy to the inside, but it brought John pretty high up the track, and out of the draft. Jeff also managed to get a 4th (?) in this race, which shows if we can get him to keep showing up (there will be plenty of time for dirt during cross season, Jeff!), we'll have yet another strong tomato!

Then, in the miss n' out, John and I were destined to be in the final 3. However, when Jerry got pulled (nice job making it to the final 6, by the way, Jerry!), and they called number "445" there was some confusion as to whether they said "445" (Jerry) or "405" (John). Mr Brun (#1 for Omnium in our group, same guy who almost took us out in race #1) told John that the announcer said "405", so John started pulling onto the apron and slowing, as I was frantically saying "No! No! They pulled Jerry! You're still in!" Unfortunately, this meant John was stuck down in the sprinters lane, with no chance of getting unblocked before the finish line, where he got pulled. I managed 2nd in a very tight sprint, beat by the ever-green Bill Walker.

In the 4x4 points race, we wanted to take advantage of the 4 tomatoes in group B (John, me, new arrival Jeff Anderson, and Jerry) with a dramatic 4-man team Cucina breakaway. Alas, when riders went hard from the 1st lap (that never happens in the points race!), our plan to attack the 2nd lap went awry, and while Jeff gave it a go to get us away on the first lap, and just after the 1st sprint, it just wasn't happening. I'm not sure if it was just the high pace (we didn't let up for pretty much the whole 16 laps), or an actual collective brain in the field that kept an eye on the 4 tomatoes (they had to assume we would do something), but all our attempts at glory failed. It was pretty much a sprint-for-all where I managed a few minor placings.

Niels was the sole tomoato in the group A, and as you can see, he did just fine on his own. He was up against two of the stronger 4's (Kroll and Cole) and got solid top 3's in each of the 3 events. Kroll will be upgrading, so your life just got a little bit easier, Niels :-)