The schedule's just been posted...

http://kissenavelodrome.info/info/Kissena2013SpringClassicSchedule.pdf

And here's the registration deets...(Note that it's pre-reg only)

https://www.bikereg.com/Net/18977

Who's down for riding it?

It looks like a good format with something for all types of riders and all cats.

If you've not raced track before, then this could be a great event to start with (note there's a Cat 5), especially if you can't make the start of the midweek Twilight series in April. An omnium gives you a chance to try all kinds of events - sprints, TT and bunch distance events.

Highlights for me will be the 1/2/3 1km TT (aka the kilo. Bring out the team sick bucket!) and the team sprint. It would be great if we can get a couple of teams in for the latter - one 1/2/3 team and at least one either Cat 4 or Cat 5. I'm down for the 1/2/3 team!

If anyone is interested, we can do some prep for it the previous week at the club track day (see separate post) and also at any of the informal sessions at the track before then. I'll post another thread about that soon, but in short I'm planning to start going down there at least one day a weekend from the start of April.

Awesome! It will be a good rehearsal for the staties in August. We can do some training for it in April if we can get down the track together one day.

Now we just need a third man...what say you, @eragot...? or @mugwump?

What's even worse with the kilo is doing it on drops...that's like going to the dentist and having a filling without anesthetic ;-)

go get 'em guys!;-!

Wild day of racing... super tired, too tired to write a race report just now. 

Results are up!

http://kissenavelodrome.info/results/2013/Kissena13SpringClassic.pdf

See pages 3-4 for times by race number.

I was 2nd in the scratch, 2nd in the kilo, 4th in the points race (WTF?) and finally, Andy, me and Mark Wagner took 1st in the team sprint. Andy was 3rd in the Miss and Out and 1st in the team sprint.

Aaron did a good ride in the 5's scratch to get 3rd, then a good 4th in the kilo, taking 3rd overall (complete with a shiny medal). Wilson enjoyed his first foray into track racing - looked comfortable in the scratch race, had a tougher time in the win and out, then did a respectable ride in the kilo.

Andy summed it up well above, but here's my account of the 1/2/3s...

10 lap scratch: Fairly sedate start. Andy tried to get away with one or two others. It looked like it was going to stick as they got about 100m gap at one point. I did my best to block at the front of the bunch. Let's just say one rider in particular didn't take to this too kindly. Let's just also say I told him what I thought of that. The same rider (Kurt Begemann) then stormed to the front and single-handedly brought back Andy and crew with three to go. Same guy stayed on the front, and then faded fast coming out of turn 2 in the final lap. I'm in a good position in the first few riders and go with John Chambers, a big, handy guy from PA. He just had a bit too much horsepower for me though. We come round the head of the field going through turns 3/4, but he's a couple of lengths ahead of me. I take second. I was really pleased - this was my first bunch race since 2007, I think.

Miss and Out - Got myself in a nice position chilling on Kurt Begemann's wheel on the inside two from the front and was having a great time...Alas I was having such a good time that I failed to realize that after four laps I was now the back of the bunch (with everyone else having moved up on the outside). Oops. Shows you what a momentary loss of concentration can do in a race like a miss and out. Andy was mixing it up well and consistently finishing in the top five or so every lap. He had a couple of good last minute dashes for the line as the field got smaller and was unlucky not to make the top two that sprinted for the win. The Miss and Out is a tough race to ride - you've either got to be super strong and ride in the top three all the time at / near the front or brave it trying to sprint from the back every lap, which gets tiring pretty quickly.

Kilo - Andy and I rode this old skool, hard man style on the drops (i.e. no aero bars. Altho Andy did cheat by using a disc, haha). It was a windy day, which made what is already a tough ride even tougher. I had a slow start, better acceleration, strong middle, then faded fast. The last 400 was typical agony. I did a 1.17 something. The first kilo I've done for five or so years (again) but I was pleased with it.  Then had to lie down in the grass for 10mins as I couldn't walk. All I remember about Andy's ride was that he made some good faces.

20 lap points - @eragot - you'd be proud of me in this one....After telling myself I was going to quit this after a few laps, I somehow found myself winning the first sprint. I then suffered like a dog for 14 laps or so and then managed to rally round to get 3rd or 4th in the final sprint, which got me 4th overall. It was a pretty fast race, and not helped by the fact I rode it on a 94" (didn't want to change gears between the kilo and the team sprint). Andy did his best to get away, but nothing would stick.

Team sprint - the "dream team" of Andy, me and Mark Wagner did a really good job. After making us start on the rail (WTF?), Andy did an excellent job of leading the team out, complete with some suitable grunting. We had a very slick (and er, borderline illegal) changeover, I made more shouting noises, did a good first half lap, faded a bit, rallied round after Mark was shouting at me behind, then slowed again coming into the final 50m.

Overall, a really fun day. Really long though - I think we were there from 9am to 5pm (I am amazed I am not more sunburnt...). Combined we took home a wallet busting $80 in prize money. I treated the three of us to Baskin Robbins on the way home. Yet another bonus of being on the Kissena track team ;-)

Christ, I look like I've been overdoing the HGH in that photo, haha ;-)

Bring on T-Town!

Oh, and I rode the final three races with my right shoe held together with duct tape. My buckle broke just before the kilo...

@kieran - I'm always proud of you.
Malcolmson wants his tape back!

Post-race team photo!

(Still can't work out how to imbed...)

Ice cream > muffins... Just sayin

kieranleahy said:

Oh, and I rode the final three races with my right shoe held together with duct tape. My buckle broke just before the kilo...

More Kissena "shoe-nanigans."

Man, that cannot have been fun riding like that!

Wheels for Kieran:

Mavic Comete Tubular Rear Disc Track Wheel

URL: http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=111070444629

OR

Item: Fast Forward FFWD Carbon Track Disc 700c Wheel

URL: http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=200924550072

Thanks Eric! The Comet looks like it's seen better days, though I guess it is 5 years old. The FFWD seems better value...Hmmmm

Oh, and I rode the final three races with my right shoe held together with duct tape. My buckle broke just before the kilo...

...alla Malcolmson! ductTape rocks it!!!! ;-)