Week 2 (July 02 2010)

Yes it was cold, but what did you expect in winter.
The night started with Michelle Ferris presenting Junior development. In the demonstration event the next generation of McGee’s, Daniel and Jessica, were locking elbows for the finish line, with Jessica holding out her brother.

The one lap screamer sprint contest is always fascinating to watch. Especially in the Div 1 were two of the series favourites, Ben Simonelli and Gavin White drew the same heat. Ben won the tussle for the start forcing Gavin to drop back to his wheel and come at him late. In the end the line came too early for Gavin, giving Simonelli a confidence boosting win.

The Snowball event is a great tactical race. Some daring riders were rewarded with their bold early moves to pick up minor points, securing enough points to place in the top 4. But clearly the best tactic was to pick up the later sprints worth more points. Possibly a highlight for me was watching multiple NSW State Champion Nash Kent, having his track debut in div 2. Despite being a national level criterium rider, Nash got schooled by riders with smaller engines (e.g. Phil Dixon and John Nguyen). I spoke to Nash after his race to see how he was going, his response; “I can taste blood in my mouth”

It is always great to close the night with a good ol CNSW Time Blaster. It is even better when the riders go oh so close to breaking the mark but miss it by 7 tenths of second. Unlucky Dave Stevens rode well but will have to try again in two weeks time to have a crack at the now jackpotted $200.

Below Report taken from Michael Clements Blog.

Re: Tour de Mike
by mikesbytes » Sat Jul 03, 2010 12:22 am

RAW Week 2 - Friday 2nd July 2010 - Division 3

After electing to sit out last week to complete my injury recovery, it was off to Dunc Grey. The last time I rode a track bike was at the Dulwich Hill 80" Ominum March 20th on, you guessed it 80"

With Zero track training, I wasn't so sure how I would go and gingerly rode around in warmup. I had left 80" on the bike as the first point scoring race was the one lap screamer, a race I traditionally do bad in, though I did OK at Hurstville in the christmas carnival.

A spin class in the morning wasn't going to help either and I could still feel it in my legs.

Warm-up race
With 80" on board, I was expecting to get dropped pretty quick, but it happened even earlier with one rider managing to wipe out another rider in the entry lap, temporarily blocking my entry onto the track. Crafty said "take one lap out" and I should of, but I raced after the pack and after 2 laps of hard slog got on. I was happy to spin away on the back, but by mid race I was starting to move upwards on the inside as riders rolled from the front. With 3 laps to go I was perfectly positioned with 2 riders in front of me and then riders attacked around the outside and blow me the 2 riders in front of me did nothing, leaving me blocked in and I come about 10th. Not that I was going to set the world on fire on 80"

One Lap Screamer
80"... I'm going to get a great start... wrong... Anthony Baggs and I collide off the start and it takes a couple of seconds to get off the power and back on it. By that time they were gone. Came last.

Snowball
A quick change of gearing puts me on 92". I sit in the pack early on. By mid race I'm picking wheels looking for an easy ride towards the front and this was really a mistake as I had tons of bandwidth to be aggressive, but instead I look for an easy lift to the front. The result is that I'm not positioned to fight for points anywhere. In previous Snowballs, I've struggled to hang in there, let alone go for points. With 2 laps to go, I finally decide to attack and go after the leader, the problem is, it isn't 2 laps to go, its 1 lap to go, so I cross the line 2nd to score no points, that nil zero zip. A series of poor decisions leaves me out of the running, not my performance.

Combined 3/4
Based on my failures in the point scoring races, I decide to go down. Early on the pace is a little quicker than I expected from a 3/4 combined, the pack spat some riders and I cross the gap with ease and sit in, while the riders roll. It's looking like I'll be in a good position at the end, I'm behind Theo who is an excellent sprinter. With 3 laps to go Theo rolls high on the banking and I'm thinking he's going to do a sprint down the banking [afterward's he told me he was thinking about it], so I roll up the speed a little in anticipation of it, so I roll off the speed a tad, not much and sit on the front. The pace isn't a problem and with 1 and bit laps to go I play my card going to full sprint. On the final corner its very close, but I get swamped on the line and come about 5th about 3/4 of a bike length behind first.

Never mind, the night showed me that no track training hasn't hurt me too much. Next week I'll ride 94"