Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Wallowing in Mediocrity

Well, the standing start 250 didn't go as well as planned. I was hoping to do a low 19, but ended up at 20.263. I felt strong and I felt fast, but this was my first time using a starting gate, and I was a bit late getting out of it. I ended up 18th out of 31 riders. Ted was 19th, only 0.02 seconds behind me. We had to race head-to-head, so that was awesome motivation for both of us. Unfortunately, we couldn't capitalize.

The DGC bested us both with a 20.21. It's incredible that the three of us were separated by less than 1/10 of a second.

I had a great top speed of 62.7kph, so I'm happy with that. Now that we've used the starting gate I'm feeling confident that we'll rip up the Team Sprint.

I really can't be too bummed about my results, since the level of competition here is phenomenal. There's no shame in getting beaten by the best. I got used to the track, and I'm pissed off enough that I'm going to throw down a stellar flying 200 tomorrow.

The mass start test was a snooze-fest, with no riders qualifying for the talent pool.

The MIB and The DGC both had good kilos (in 1:11 and change), though they were both about a second slower than the State Championships in Blaine.



OK, gotta go. Franz owes me dinner.

6 comments:

Gilby said...

The start gate takes some getting used to. Last year I applied pressure to the pedals just a fraction of a second too early, and instinctively backed it off just as the gate opened. The bike rolled forward and I had to get my pedals out of the dead spot in the rotation...

Stay alive in the warmups out there. Everyone's a prima donna, shoulder checks are virtually non-existent...I'm sure you've figured that out by now.

Good luck to you and the other MN folks in the 200 & sprints!!!

SickBoy said...

I thought that the total time on the mass start test was 3:31 - if that's the case, several riders should have made it in, according to the results....

SickBoy said...

... in which case, Curtis Gunn, BJM, Zirbel and blea all should have made it in....

Tenacious T said...

Sickboy, they changed the time standard to make it completely impossible for anyone to make it.

The standard is now 32 seconds for the 500 and 3:25 for the 3K.

blea was the closest.

Anonymous said...

that's nothing. Look for me to nail that OUTSIDE here at BLAINE next in '08.

WORD

Tenacious T said...

Does that mean you're not sprinting next year?