March 17th- 4th Place,Commonwealth Games Points Race, 1point away from a podium result!!!

The velodrome was a packed full house, with crowds from around the Commonwealth countries filling the stands. Flags, banners, wigs, national team outfits, cheers and horns packed the stadium, with over 3,000 people supporting their countries. The energy was electric as 15 of the best track riders in the commonewealth world lined up at the rail to start the 100 lap points race. Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Jamaica, and Canada were the main contenters in the race. The race consisted of 25km, or 100 laps with sprints being contested every 10 laps. Sprints points were awarded 5,3,2,1 for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, respectively.

During my warm up on the rollers prior to the race, my legs felt fresh and snappy. I was able to have one of the best warm ups I have ever felt...In my head I knew I was about to put in the best Points race of my career. We lined up on the rail, and my heart was pounding. The crowd was insane and my adrenaline and nerves were having a party!!! The start gun blasted and we rolled down track. The race started off fast from the gun with the aussi's clearly heading to the front to begin taking control of the race...and, clearly they had the biggest manpower of the bunch. Our job was to out-smart them and keep them in our sight. The first sprint came quickly, and my ('whole) 7 international track points races, all of a sudden, came together and I was in the flow of the race. My positioning was good and my training leading up to this event was perfect. For each sprint I dug so deep that I didn't know I would be able to recover...that is what training is for!!!! I did it over and over and over, this bounced me from 2nd place to 3rd place to 1st place to 4th place, and in the end the race was a fight for the bronze. Gold and silver were wrapped up solidly, but the Scottish girl and I were battling it out for the bronze. In the end, due to some technical errors in the race, I just missed a point by about 1inch, or 1 tire width, leaving me with a 4th place overall finish, 1 point out of a bronze medal. The race finished with an average speed of 45.2 km/hr, which is pretty quick for a points race.

All in all, I am very happy with the race. I had, by far, the best points race of my career to date. I finished the race knowing that I was physically able to give it everything I had for my country. Technically and physically everything came together, and I will rack this one up again as a learning/stepping stone for bigger and better things to come!

So, as somebody put it: "You are going home with the tin medal!!" And, yes, 4th is probably the worst postition to come. When I say I came fourth, most people just say "aaaaaaaaah, so close to a podium". You know, actually, it goes like this:

Gold- "excellent, wOw!! Congratulations!!! Can I have your autograph?!"

Silver- "aaaah, great work that's aweome! Congrats"

Bronze- "oh, great job, niiiiice"

Tin- "awwww, so close to podium, maybe next time"

And now.........it is time to prepare for the road race in 1 weeks' time...another opportunity to hang some hardware around the neck!!!

thanks for reading!

-gina