Awesome Marc!  I love it!

Good job Marc! Sounds like fun.

Jules - vive la revolution de piste (or something)! ;-)

Was perpetually in the dick spot tonight. Felt good and lasted up 10 laps to go the final laps of the 10k feature.

I need a Madison partner for next week.

Andrew Da Silva said:

Was perpetually in the dick spot tonight. Felt good and lasted up 10 laps to go the final laps of the 10k feature. I need a Madison partner for next week.

Working your way closer to the prize spot I see. You'll get there! FYI, the Madison has always terrified me. They should show that race on Olympic coverage. That shit is exciting to watch!

Marc Bertucco said:

FYI, the Madison has always terrified me. They should show that race on Olympic coverage. That shit is exciting to watch!

Alas the UCI, in its infinite and benevolent wisdom, scrapped the Madison from the Olympics - 2008 was the last time it featured. As part of their slimming down the number of medals in track (to make way for BMX), they scrapped the madison and individual pursuit (you know, only the blue riband endurance event in track) for 2012, having already taken out the kilo (you know, only probably the most exciting individual TT event in track) for 2008. The fuckers. Replaced it with the Omnium, which is cool, but no way as good as some of the individual events it replaced, and the riders are kinda meh.

Next week is the final Tues night of the season at T-Town. I got the time off. A desperate attempt to regain some form before State Champs following my illness last week. Who's down for riding? Andy? @eragot? @mugwump? @Marc?

My first day of school! Its possible.

I'm considering it.  

I would love to, but childcare issues usually prevent me from getting out of town on weekdays. I'm doubly bummed because I'm going to miss this weekend of racing too at T-town due to family obligations. I feel like I'm just starting to get my groove back on the track too. Hrumpf.

Ooooh, possible good news. I might be able to make it out to T-Town on Tuesday. Keep'n my fingers crossed.

God willing I kick this cold... I'm there

Excellent, if we can get all five of us out that would be great!

Andy - get inhaling steam (bowl of boiling water with a towel over your head) with vaporub dissolved in it. 15mins. Twice a day if you have time for it, once if not. That's my magic trick. And hit up the multi-vitamins. Stay off cheese and milk.

Damn this cat 4 track license!

I'm starting to come around... while home sick I watched the Jr. Worlds re-run. Caught the t-town squad. I have to say... they looked like ten year olds compared to their European competition. I think my standing start is better than Tylers!!! 

Great end to the Fuji Super Tuesday Pro-am series. In attendance JP, Kieran and I. I'll let them give their reports. I felt particularly strong in the 12 lap tempo. Sitting in the first half then going off the front with a one or two other riders the second half. Eventually we were caught on the final lap. In the points race I thought I won the first sprint... But quickly realized I had won a ten dollar prime. Oh well. JP and I, along with one other rider, ended up separating from the field for the last 4 laps? Something like that. I was able to get the sprint, JP pulled me into the final lap. Our breakaway companion was on my wheel the entire last lap, but he never came around. I totally bombed the elimination. That said, I did we'll enough in the first two races to still be able to get in the money for fifth overall in our field of 26. As I said before ill let JP and Kieran give their reports. I have to mention Kieran's performance the entire night and particularly in the 10k feature was sensational, and JP was riding super strong and adaptable in our stagiers field.

Definitely echo what Andy says - it was a fun night! I had pretty low expectations, not having raced for a couple of weeks and having been ill in the meantime. Felt rough after the warm up and nervous about the racing. The first Pro-Am race was a 10 lap scratch. The pace was slower with the international guys having gone home and the field only 12 or so, but still very fast. I could have done better if I had raced with a bit more confidence. Coming down the back straight in the final lap I was in the mix for 3rd, but hesitated and lost the opportunity and ended up with 5th instead.

Next was a 25 points race. Got on the wrong side of a four man break. The rest of us chased and chased and never made it back. There was two of us left by the end! Good purgatory.

Miss and out - got stuck having to sprint around the back. Managed this for 6 laps, before running out of legs. A little frustrating. Some d-bag nearly brought me off at one point too, which was a little scary.

10k (30 laps) scratch. Much bigger field of about 25 with the addition of the stagaires and one or two of the women. Fast start before easing off, then getting really fast again with about 20 to go. Suffering a lot at this point, but gritted my teeth, found some good wheels and toughed it out. Glad I had a 96" on! Sustained speed basically decimated the field and it was really hard to tell where the front was - probably only about 10 left in contention at this point. Then, blowing hard but going ok with four to go, I was just behind a lead group of 2, riding second wheel in a group of about 5; coming into the final lap I got jumped in the back straight, so went myself, came round one guy and held off a couple of people to get 4th. Was exhausted but fairly pleased with myself - felt I had redeemed myself after the frustrating points and elimination races. It was enough for 4th or 5th overall in the omnium that night (not sure which, results not been published yet).

Andy and JP looked good in their races - some nice riding in the tempo points and points race in particular.

Overall, good preparation for States in 10 days' time.

Enjoyed my first three trips to T-town this summer! It was a little intimidating each time, but rode steadily better with each trip. Getting out there next year is going to be difficult, which is frustrating, but you never know...

Oh, and alas we didn't have time for a post-race trip to Applebees. Short on time, we had to make do with Wendy's drive thru...

Tasty tho!

I love reading these, but good god, leave out the food.

Good night of racing.  I'm finally getting a feel for racing in big fields on this shorter, faster track.  Once again, we had women and stagaires together.  And 60 year-old Pat Gellineau, who showed the young punks (all of us) how its done--that guy is smart on the track.

For Yang http://www.thevelodrome.com/racing/masters-rookies/ There is racing every Saturday for fives, fours, and old folks. Though the link says it runs till Sept 14th, this weekend is actually the last date. If you poke around on the site, they have a couple of race programs posted, so you can get an idea of what their 5 racing consists of. Come down on Saturday, reg opens at 10, closes at 1130, racing starts at noon. And you can even watch some cx before or afterwards.

eragot said:

Someone should race the triple - Masters CX, Masters Track, Elite CX...

might ruin my Sunday racing though...

It would totally ruin your Sunday. I think what folks used to only doing long road rides and races don't appreciate is how tiring a 10-lap scratch race, or 45-minute crit, or 35-minute CX race can be.

Dang, plans already on Saturday.

Bump

Work?

@Andrew, you driving?

I worked it out so I can go in early on Tuesdays

Andrew Da Silva said:

Bump

5/20/14 is the first Tuesday night.... I'm excited. 

JP, Ragot, Marc?

woah...can't believe it's already time! I think I'm out of town then, but am eager to become a Tuesday night regular depending on child care. Will probably be a week to week question for me.

Andrew Da Silva said:

Bump

5/20/14 is the first Tuesday night.... I'm excited. 

JP, Ragot, Marc?

Thanks for the reminder.  Will have to check what other things are on my calendar that week.