Tracking Racing, Mike Bergstrom, Aug 8
Last week was a disappointment from a results standpoint, although I thought I rode fast, but didn’t really have anything tangible in the way of results….that’s racing!
Last night I felt good warming up, back was a bit tight so I spent some time stretching and working up a good sweat. My first event was the team pursuit, I kind of think I will do pretty well at this one, I can ride hard and keep a good line for 3K, how hard could it be? I again hooked up with Keith, who turned out to be a star, garnering a medal of each color on the night I think, time for him to move to the A’s and get his brains beat out some! We got Peter Esselstyn ( he of the sandbagging Esselstyns’ :- ) and since Mark Bowen decided to ride with his Harvard cronies instead of the NEBC train, we recruited a young guy named Alex to ride with us. As the luck of the draw had it, we were racing the Bowen/Harvard team. I was slated to do the first lap, we decided to rotate on the full lap, some teams would end up with half-lap pulls, but I thought our decision was a pretty good one. We got a good start, unfortunately losing Peter fairly early, so we were down to three, and since the timing was done on the third man, there was no room for error. It was a very tight race, 9 laps of leg burning, lung spewing speed. When I was in the back, I had to stay above the rider in front of me a little, I had a lot of extra speed, and didn’t want to crash by overlapping his wheel. Alex turned out to be a strong rider, so we were going pretty well. Coming around the last turn to the straight, I pulled outside from the back and sprinted to the finish, ensuring that our three man team would cross the line in a row instead of paceline, thus making us a little faster through the timer. That was Peter’s idea and I think it made the difference. Our time was 4:05 and change, the Bowen/Harvard team finished in 4:06 so we had beaten them, now just to wait for the other teams to ride. The next two teams were at least 10 seconds behind so we were in position for gold! The last team was a throw together at the last minute, three riders, but all pretty fast guys, so it was possible that we might be beaten….not to be, they finished third. NEBC train wins gold, Harvard silver. Interesting note…..these were the differences in winning times for the C, B and A team pursuits:
A: 3:53 ( Barry was on a team that finished third )
B: 4:05 ( NEBC riders first and second )
C: 4:37 ( John Leipheimer on the winning team )
Point is that the B’s are a lot closer to the A’s than the C’s are to the B’s. Oh it was really hard, to go fast you needed to bust your butt!
The match sprint finals were going on and the guy who finished second in the B group was a guy who I had beaten in my first ever match sprint a few weeks ago, which made me realize that sometimes it’s luck and tactics that wins in match sprinting and you can win and lose any time when two riders are comparable….. a good lesson.
Final event was a points race, I had been standing around for a while, almost didn’t ride, but decided to use it for training, bad choice. My legs said no, but my head said “race, race, race”. Mark was suddenly back in the NEBC fold, we decided that he and Keith would try to get away and get the points, Peter and I would chase attacks and block…..as Mark says “the best laid plans”. I started out and tried to keep the pace fairly high to discourage attacks until Mark and Keith made their move, too late, a couple of guys go off the front and the chase is on. Peter pops off the back, he seemed really tired, and Mark and Keith started to make ground in a couple of laps, no points for us on the first points lap, but we had cleaned up the race and Mark and Keith ended up in a break of about 5 guys, I decided to block the rest of the group. They weren’t happy, I was sitting on the pole, keeping the break exactly where I wanted it in front, and at least twice I got yelled at to get off the front so they could chase. I chose not to do so for three or four laps, and when I did come off, the two riders went by and I sat in to recover. My legs were unhappy with me, but my competitiveness was getting the better of me. We ended up with one lap to go in a group of about 8 riders, I was on Mark’s wheel, and again had I gone around the outside and sooner, I might have stolen some double points, but I rode well and hard so I was OK with it, especially when Keith finished second on the double points final lap, good enough for a bronze medal!
I really wanted to do the kilo, but there wasn’t time to run that event. Three laps solo sprinting to the death, right up my alley.
I find that in my first year on the track, I am probably better at the timed events than points races and scratch races, at least for now. I don’t always feel comfortable in the tight packs of those races, but I think that will come with experience. This is my first year back to serious cycling after a long time of recreational riding and even not riding at all, so I am fairly happy with my fitness level and my effort. Next spring, I need to do more work on pack riding, I am comfortable in a group, but packs are a little different, at race speed people are less “predictable”.
In the final analysis, I spent a year XC ski racing, hard training and racing, with the goal of not embarrassing myself at the 1997 Masters Nationals. Well, I won a medal there and held my own against two Olympians in the relay. Cycling seems to be taking a similar route for me. This year is the hard training to get an appropriate level of fitness, then building to next season both on the track and road. I might even make the Masters Track Nationals one of my goals for next year! That would be a blast!