Untitled Document

	Mar. 3rd, 2006- Sydney World Cup Track Points Race: 3rd in heats, 13th in final. Kick off the road legs, and strap on the track Legs because it is back to the action packed fast racing on the track. No longer does the head think about wind factors, gravel on the road, parked cars and teams of 6 working together. Now my mind has to switch to such things as the banking on the track, positioning on the track, no gears and for the love of gawd DO NOT STOP PEDALLING!!!! Instead of action happening over 1-3hrs on the road, everything happens on the track in 15-25min for the points race. There is no room for mistakes, no time to cover up, and absolutely no time to take a break...mentally and physically. Going into the qualifying points race, where 4 people get taken out of competition, I had to make sure that I scored points to make it to the final. For the qualifyer, we race 40 laps with sprints being every 10 laps. The sprint points go 5,3,2.1 for 1st place, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, respectively. I had a hard heat with girls such as the current world champion in it. I felt really good going into the race. My road legs from the previous few weeks of training, noticably increased my fitness level. I was able to get enough points to move on to the final, finishing the qualifyer in 3rd place. The final was set to start at 8pm. Our qualifyer ended at about 2pm, giving us enough time to ride back to the hotel and eat lunch. By 6pm we were back on our bikes riding back to the track to start warming up for the main event. My legs didn't feel as fresh this evening as they did for the qualifyers. Sometimes they feel better, and sometimes worse. That is racing, so you just have to go with it. The final points race is 80 laps of the 250m track with points being awarded in the same fashion as the qualifier, every 10 laps. I struggled a bit during the race with the seated accelerations and matching the accelerations of some of the girls. This left me struggling with the points!!! So, in do or do nothing mode, I put in a good attack and got away from the bunch. Soon, an american joined me, and we were off for about 7 laps. At 1/2 lap to the points we got caught!!!!! AAAAAAAAH. When you get caught and you have been off the front, your legs are full of lactic acid and you just have to dig as deep as possible to hold on for a top position in the sprint. I managed to hold on for 3rd getting a few points. Meanwhile, previous to this, a few girls lapped the field and there was a horrible crash that involved a few riders. They had to stop the race in order to remove the girl on a stretcher. She ended up not too seriously injured, but apparently she broke a bunch of bones in her face. Yes, track racing can be very dangerous. Our average speed was 46km/hr with max speed ranging around 60km/hr. In the end I came 13th place. This is the last Points race of the World Cup track season. All in all, I qualified the country for the Track World Championships in Bordeaux, France in April. I also qualified myself to go after this weekend, so it looks like I will be heading to the World Championships one week after returning from the Commonwealth Games!!!!! Rumor has it they have great wine over there :-))))))))))))) cheers! gina

Mar. 3rd, 2006- Sydney World Cup Track Points Race: 3rd in heats, 13th in final.

Kick off the road legs, and strap on the track Legs because it is back to the action packed fast racing on the track. No longer does the head think about wind factors, gravel on the road, parked cars and teams of 6 working together. Now my mind has to switch to such things as the banking on the track, positioning on the track, no gears and for the love of gawd DO NOT STOP PEDALLING!!!! Instead of action happening over 1-3hrs on the road, everything happens on the track in 15-25min for the points race. There is no room for mistakes, no time to cover up, and absolutely no time to take a break...mentally and physically.

Going into the qualifying points race, where 4 people get taken out of competition, I had to make sure that I scored points to make it to the final. For the qualifyer, we race 40 laps with sprints being every 10 laps. The sprint points go 5,3,2.1 for 1st place, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, respectively. I had a hard heat with girls such as the current world champion in it. I felt really good going into the race. My road legs from the previous few weeks of training, noticably increased my fitness level. I was able to get enough points to move on to the final, finishing the qualifyer in 3rd place.

The final was set to start at 8pm. Our qualifyer ended at about 2pm, giving us enough time to ride back to the hotel and eat lunch. By 6pm we were back on our bikes riding back to the track to start warming up for the main event. My legs didn't feel as fresh this evening as they did for the qualifyers. Sometimes they feel better, and sometimes worse. That is racing, so you just have to go with it. The final points race is 80 laps of the 250m track with points being awarded in the same fashion as the qualifier, every 10 laps. I struggled a bit during the race with the seated accelerations and matching the accelerations of some of the girls. This left me struggling with the points!!! So, in do or do nothing mode, I put in a good attack and got away from the bunch. Soon, an american joined me, and we were off for about 7 laps. At 1/2 lap to the points we got caught!!!!! AAAAAAAAH. When you get caught and you have been off the front, your legs are full of lactic acid and you just have to dig as deep as possible to hold on for a top position in the sprint. I managed to hold on for 3rd getting a few points. Meanwhile, previous to this, a few girls lapped the field and there was a horrible crash that involved a few riders. They had to stop the race in order to remove the girl on a stretcher. She ended up not too seriously injured, but apparently she broke a bunch of bones in her face. Yes, track racing can be very dangerous. Our average speed was 46km/hr with max speed ranging around 60km/hr. In the end I came 13th place. This is the last Points race of the World Cup track season. All in all, I qualified the country for the Track World Championships in Bordeaux, France in April. I also qualified myself to go after this weekend, so it looks like I will be heading to the World Championships one week after returning from the Commonwealth Games!!!!! Rumor has it they have great wine over there :-)))))))))))))

cheers!

gina