I'll start with this: I raced a madison, and I didn't suck. Unfortunately, I kinda sucked in everything else.
There was a lot of uncertainty with the weather, but it ended up drying out just in time to race. My kids, my sister, and her boyfriend came out to watch (along with his sister and his dad), so I was hoping to race well.
The first race of the night was an "unknown distance" race. I hate those. We've really been bombarded with circus races this year. Anyway, the group I was in got gapped at around lap 7, and I pulled out after lap 15 because the top 5 spots were already pretty well secured. The race ended on lap 20, with Bergman taking the win over Crosby.
Next we had 3-lap sprint heats. Andrew Armstrong went hard from the gun, and I sat on his wheel for 2.5 laps, then came around to take the win with Ferris in 2nd.
Whenever there are enduros in the "sprint" races, it ends up being a bit like a keirin, because they always go on the first lap, and it's pretty much a crap-shoot after that.
The sprint finals sucked ass. I got a bit lazy and didn't fight hard enough for position when Kruse attacked on the first lap, then I got pushed up to the rail in the final sprint. I shut down my effort in turn 3 and finished 5th. Suck. Speedfix occupied 4 of the 6 spots in the finals, and the two "solo" riders finished 1st and 2nd. Crap.
After sitting around for an eternity, it was finally time for Tainter and I to rock the Madison. This was my first time actually racing a Madison, so the goal was basically to stay out of trouble and not bring shame upon myself. We were hanging with the front-runners for the first several laps, but missed a crucial exchange just before the first sprint lap. We still ended up taking some points, but lost touch with the leaders. As we were exchanging on the homestretch around lap 30, they range the bell for a $20 prime. I lit it up trying to get to the line first, which I did, but then the officials claimed they were ringing the bell for the group behind us. Huh??? If I'm on the homestretch and you ring the bell, I'm going to assume you're ringing it for me. We hung tough through the rest of the race, even though I was fading hard towards the end and my right calf was starting to cramp up. In the end were awarded 5th place. We should have had 4th, but when we passed the blue team, then they re-passed us, they were awarded a lap. We had the same number of points as them, and beat them in the finishing sprint, so should have placed ahead of them. Not a big deal, but kind of annoying. We also received a "warning" for hanging onto the rail, even though neither of us did that.
It was a hell of a good workout, and I had a great time, so I think I'll race more Madisons in the future. We didn't have a very cohesive pack and there were teams all over the track so I think many of the spectators were confused, but I sure enjoyed it!
