Anyone who has seen me race lately knows that I'm merely a shell of the sprinter I used to be, having lost the speed I once had due to lack of training and other commitments.
There were 10 racers, and I ended up qualifying 4th with an 11.91. My goal was just to break 12, so I'm calling that a win.
What followed was the world's longest fucking sprint tournament in the history of sprint tournaments. Obviously this would not bode well for me, being fat and out of shape.
We did 6 races just to eliminate 2 riders. That's a lotta work.
In the first round of the quarterfinals, I was matched up against Dan Schueller. I knew he'd try to go long on me, and in the first race, he did just that. I timed my sprint perfectly and beat him by half a wheel at the line. Unfortunately, the effort of chasing him down for 2 laps absolutely destroyed me. I was throwing up in my mouth and shit. It was gross. In our second race, he jumped early again and I just let him go, opting to take the additional recovery time to get ready for the 3rd race. I drew first position, pinned Dan against the rail, and kept him there until the bell lap, then went full gas. On the homestretch, I thought I had a gap, but got the shit scared out of me when Dan pulled up alongside me and had to kick it down again to advance to the semifinals by the slimmest of margins.
In the semis, I had to race Franz first. He had qualified .6 faster than me and I knew I didn't have a chance in hell, so I raced rather half-heartedly to save my energy for the bronze-medal ride.
I raced Mike Hall for 3rd, and he had qualified less than .1 ahead of me. In our first race, he made a tactical error and I won pretty handily. At this point, I was absolutely destroyed, but feeling confident. He then proceeded to destroy me in two consecutive rides to take the final podium spot. He rode strong and deserved the win. He's been working his ass off this year and I haven't.
I was actually pretty pleased to have taken 4th, given my current condition. Sure, it would have been nice to get on the podium, but that bronze medal would have clashed with my two gold's anyway!
In all, the sprint tournament took 4 fucking hours. We then got to sit in traffic for an extra 90 minutes due to road construction, arriving home well after midnight. Today, I feel like I got hit by a truck. I ache all over and my stomach feels...funky. I need a nap.
Franz and Ferris made a spectacle out of the gold medal ride. In the first race, it was pretty much a straight-up drag race, with Ferris winning by inches on the line. In the second race, we witnessed 2 restarts. First, because Ferris clipped a pedal and slipped off the banking in turn 2, taking Franz down with him. Second, because Franz clipped out and put his food down during a trackstand. After the 2nd restart, there was nearly another crash when Ferris's front wheel rubbed Franz's rear, but he managed to stay up and we got to see another great race to the line, with Ferris taking the win, along with the gold medal.
Well done, everyone.
1 comment:
Nice riding Taylor. Schuller made you dig deep. The win on the 3rd ride was the most impressive.
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