Wednesday (8/6/08) at the velodrome, I seemed to be following moves rather than making them. The key to my racing is knowing that I can break the will of the competition. Everyone looks strong until they crack. I've been good at waiting for opportunity to knock, but not at making the race go my way. This leads to occasional wins and consistent 3rd place. Need to attack and sustain. I also need to start sprinting much sooner, before the 200m line, not coming out of turn 4 with 50m to go.
Tuesday (8/5/08) I raced at Floyd Bennett field to get some tempo work as preparation for the velodrome. I was in a small break but it wasn't working out with 4 laps to go. Just as we were about to get reabsorbed someone was gracious enough to shout "Right!" as an Organic rider bridged up and shot past us. Seeing an opportunity, I jumped on his wheel. He pulled through the first corner, kept going for a little bit, then bonked. I was on my own with a big enough gap to stay at the front. Since my goal was tempo work, I settled in fast but not impossible pace and started thinking about the upcoming time trial (on the same course). I think I'll bring music for the TT. I stayed away for a lap on my own. On the long straight I hoped to get a bit of a draft off the pace vehicle but he drove off to my dismay and I stupidly stayed in the middle of the course where the entire field could see me. It would have been smarter to ride near the bushes and hope they would forget about about me.
Eloy was the first to attack when I was caught -- and for a brief moment I thought I'd grab his wheel as he passed, but I didn't have the jump. If anyone is still reading this, this is an awesome team move and should be the status quo. No matter how you slice it to have someone attack when the field's been working to catch a team mate is the right way to race. I floated to the back of the pack, recovered for a lap and worked my way back up to the front where I could see who was racing and who wasn't.
A couple of riders had been taunting and shadowing Jim Butler - especially during the second half of the race. James is a nice guy who just recently just started racing and has already won two races on this course. I might have made more of this opportunity, since they were just tiring each other out. Neither JB nor his taunters got top 5.
I calmly sucked wheels right up to the finish line for 7th. In hindsight I might have been able to sprint into some prize money and upgrade points. Or I might never have made it. I'll just say I came in 7th because I had a nice draft most of the time instead of being some punk's leadout rider.
I'll never know for sure.
To the left, blue and orange reflective helmet.
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