I woke up Sunday morning with my legs aching like crazy. Amazingly, spending an hour driving around trying to find a breakfast place didn't do anything to make them feel better. They felt heavy and slow through my entire warm-up, and I knew I was in for a tough day.
We started out with 1-Mile Sprint heats. I didn't have any real ambitions for this race, except to try to wake my legs up. I was on the front the first couple laps, then DGC took over and picked up the pace a bit. Then I got myself boxed in yet again, and had to fight just to avoid getting dropped. My legs did not feel any better.
The Keirin heats were up next, and I was hoping to race smart and make the finals. FAIL! Tainter took the motor, and I was back in 4th wheel. I was feeling pretty good with my position, and I made a move around the outside coming into the bell lap and was moving up pretty well when I totally exploded with 100 meters to go. I started pedaling squares and just couldn't make my legs turn over anymore.
I had nothin'. I had put on a bigger gear in hopes that maybe I'd be able to power through it. It didn't hurt, but it didn't help either. Some days, ya just don't have it.
We had over an hour to get ready for the Team Sprint, which is my favorite race. I focused on replacing some calories, stretching, and spinning on the rollers. I was feeling a bit better by the time we took to the track, and was hoping for a solid performance. Team SpeedWood (Franz, Tainter, and I) was ready to rock.
We got off to a great start, with all three of us falling perfectly in line. Franz got us up to speed, and I felt strong through my entire lap. Tainter charged across the line for a new track record of 49.774!
The team of Matt Diefenbach (Masters National Champion, 2nd in Worlds), Ben Barczewski (Junior National Sprint Champion), and Roberto Chiappa (41-time Italian National Champion, 3-time World Champion, Living Legend) was easily the favorite to win this event. I couldn't believe my ears when the announcement came that they clocked at time of 49.795, just .02 seconds slower than team SpeedWood.
We freakin' won! How cool is that? The local boys beat a team consisting of multiple national and world champions! This was by far the highlight of the weekend (and probably the season) for me. To win at my favorite event with such a high level of competition feels amazing.
I took Monday off work. I'm beat.
At this point in the season, I'm clearly not cut out for two days of hard racing. We've had such a crappy Spring that my opportunities to race have been few and far between. One Thursday Night race and one mock sprint tournament is all I've had, and some of our visitors who have been racing since January.
The sprinting crew: Chiappa, Tainter, Diefenbach, LaCorte, Barczewski, Olson
Franz, Aussie chick, and Andrew LaCorte (who had a bad-luck weekend)
Look how important Tainter is!
Play on, Skibby.
"That was FAST!"
The Man
Deifenbach, Barczewski, Chiappa Team sprint start
Look, our time is faster!
Keirin action
Men's omnium. Emile Abraham wins!
Women's omnium podium. Higgins, Hayduk, Tripplet
Cookies. Mmmmmmm.
4 comments:
Your team sprint was amazing to watch and very deserving of the record. I was very stoked with your guys time and the fact that you have the record!
It would have been great to see what Chiappa would have been able to produce if Bergman wouldn't have forced such a high line with his slow riding in the sprint lane after getting dropped...that was a bit disappointing.
Great job this weekend!
who brought those cookies? Gwen and I found them after the race but didn't know where they came from....
Those were from Meow
I conferred with Chiappa after the race. He said the site of Bergman made him ride faster than he has ever gone before. So without Bergman we would have won by probably a second or more. Diefenbach and Blatchford said they road the race of their lives.
It was the most improbable outcome of any race the entire weekend. Glad it happend to Tainter, Taylor and I.
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