Another weekend of racing at Alpenrose, the AVC schedule is posted and the teams are starting to come together for our annual 6 day race.
For me it was a pretty awesome weekend with a 2nd masters pts race, 2nd in the minor keirin final and 6th in open pts race.
First race up was a Madison, and one of the few times I did not race it. My partner for the 6 day stole the local stud, a recent national champ and euro 6 day rider, and road away with the win. It was fun to just watch the madison and it made me think about how crazy that race is. It feels so much easier to race a madison than to watch one, I think I need someone to video me in a madison so I can see myself in such a crazy race.
Next up was the masters points race, and with 3 teammates in the race we went in with a strong plan. I and one teammate would go for the first points setting up my other teammates to go for the next points and hopefully eventually get away. Well the race went just like that. I think I was 2nd in the first sprint, and then went back while my other two teammates went to the front for the next points. Soon after that there was an attack and my teammate covered just like we wanted making 3 riders off the front ... perfect. Then one final rider jumped and I was this close to covering him as 1 of 3 is ok, 1 of 4 when we had 4 was not a good idea.
However I looked and thought it would be ok, as my teammate is pretty good at managing the break, and I could help him with points when they came back around. It did not take long and after 10 laps or so they had made the lap and now it was time to set tempo. There was still one guy left who did not make the lap, so I just set my highest tempo possible at the front and made him suffer for 3 more laps and then continued to set tempo to limit the counter attacks while also giving my teammate a leadout for each sprint. I am petty sure this is the hardest 50 lap points race I have ever done as I set tempo for about 3 laps out of every 5 for the last 20 to 25 laps.
In addition to setting tempo I did my best to ensure that my teamate won the sprint while I held on for at least 3rd to ensure less points for the other riders who took laps. Then on the final double sprint my teammate told me I had to keep going. I thought he was crazy, but he ended up just being smart since by him not passing me I was able to win the final sprint. He ran away with 1st, and I snuck in the back and stole 2nd place away from the other 3 riders who gained laps because of the new 20 point/lap rule and the fact I had snagged so many 2nd and 3rds in addition to the final double points. So win-win for us, I could barely get off my bike, but I really enjoyed the race and was very happy with the team results more than anything. It is soo much easier to ride harder when you have a teammate going for the win.
Next up was the keirin heats, and all I was hearing was how stacked the other heats were. Yeah, my heat had 2 national champs, one the defending 35+ sprint champ and the other a euro 6day rider who is known for sprinting and use the madison for a light warmup. Well I somehow managed the time to change up to a 98 inch gear so I could hold wheels as they jumped up to close to 40 mph ... however even with my perfect position in 2nd place I stopped with one lap to go as I was being passed and knew I had little to no chance to hold them off, so I finished 3rd and earned a spot in the minor final.
In the minor final I had another national champ (we have 3 defending sprint champs at our track) who didn't make the final, but had to be toast as this was his 4th race, and fellow forum racer Mr Ratliff. I figured I would have a little more fun in this one and took the front spot on the motor away from newer racer, then launched what I thought was a decent sprint that I hoped would be enough to hold off the riders from the back. Not to be as Brian Ratliff blew by me on the front straight with more than enough to take the win. Oh well, at least just one of the two sprinters passed me, the others in the minor were more enduros, and the major final was full of sprinters and elite national level enduros. Pretty pleased with my efforts after the points race.
Final race was the 100 lap open points race, I knew going in that I was just there for the training, but even still my goal was just to hold wheels as long as possible. I did not even attempt to sprint for any of the points, and felt dead trying to hold wheels the whole time. Eventually a move went up the road, first 2, then 3 and 4, finally number 5, who was slow to jump up. I really thought hard about the final jump, and I really should have found something to attempt to cover it, but I really didn't want to get dropped trying to catch him, so I just sat in and helped ride tempo for a few laps while we waited for the eventually lapping. At one point someone said we needed to work harder as they were gaining ... um ... they are taking the lap regardless of what we do, and even if they didn't they are going to take all the sprints anyways.
After that attacks continued to fly so I did my best to roll back and forth in the group, but mostly just holding the only speed I could go at that point. For the final sprint I did my best to hold the wheels of those in front and it worked just enough to slip me into 4th place, which given the fact that the top 4 riders took nearly 100% of the previous points meant that I snagged the 5th most points and earned 6th on the day by just holding wheels all day. I didn't really expect that, but I will take it.
Likely one of the best efforts I have given on the track in many years, so while I did not get any wins, I scored it as a perfect day.