Grass Track Racing From T&T
Alright time again for another chapter. After returning from Stuttgart, I took a little off season, i.e. three weeks, which was very much needed after the almost 12 month season. There is no doubt that racing as much track and road as I did in that year has seen me grow leaps and bounds. I mean I went into the Gent Six (blog Nov '06) having never raced an international madison. But at the end of Stuttgart, I have raced four international madisons and a half of dozen madisons around the US. So in the past year I have advanced well past the rookie stage, well at least on the track.
So after a little time off the bike I was invited back to Trinidad and Tobago to race in the Southern Games. With two weeks to go, I jumped back on the bike. And put in as many miles as I could, a couple of efforts, and then it was off to the races.
The Southern Games consisted of two days of racing with 8 total cycling events. The biggest difference about this race is that it was held on a grass track. Now I know you are thinking how in the world, as any of the other tracks I have mentioned on my blog are all substantially banked. But this track is almost flat and about 450m long. During the games there was a full track and field competition taking place on the infield while track cycling raced around the outside.
The first day of racing was a quick learning experience since I have never raced the grass before. However I have raced a bit of cyclo-cross and I do mountain bike when I get a chance, so racing over bumpy terrain came very easy. The biggest difference while racing was that you could not "float" on the pedals, a key feature to track racing especially when you are drafting. Floating enables you to recover while you are still racing, and half of the game is conserving energy for when you need it the most. Therefore, racing came down to pure power and sprinting, since a breakaway was impossible because it was so hard just to keep the bike moving.
The international field consisted of 8 riders from T&T, 4 from the USA, 2 from the UK, one Spaniard, and one Canadian. From the international field, only the two British riders, Ben Elliot and Adam Duggleby, had considerable grass track experience because they have this type of racing back in the UK.
Ben on the left, Adam in the center, and Kelyn Akuna on the right
I have to give a big thanks to them for sharing all their knowledge on how to set up the bike for the grass. I think it came as a shock to most of us at just how slow the track felt. There was a couple days of rain just before the event and track soaked the moisture up, making it a little soft. After a few races we found that about 70psi was the right tire pressure, and we all figured out just how small a gear we had to ride to make the racing feel manageable. I ended up riding a 47x16 or 79" gear! For those of you not familiar with just how small this is; well on a hard track we race around a 90" gear and warm up in around an 84" gear. So a 79" gear is considerably small for racing...normally. In this case it was great, especially for me since I have developed a very nice, fast, spin from riding so many madisons over the last year. And this spin proved to be very dangerous.
The 8 races consisted of 500m, Match Sprints, 1000m, 2000m, 3000m, 8000m shortened to 5000m, 10,000m, and a Devil Takes the Hindmost (Miss and Out). In the end the promoter also decided to add a Keirin for the sprinters. On the first night of racing, I ended up getting second in the 2000m and a nice cap to the evening with a win in the shortened 8000m. On night two, I ended up taking another second in the 3000m to start off the evening. By the final event, the 10,000m, I was in competition for the Best Overall International Cyclist with Ben.
He was just coming off of a win in the Keirin, a few events earlier, and had also been digging supper deep in other races of the evening, so I thought I had a decent chance to pull off the win. The race started out easy with some small attacks but nothing getting to far away before getting chased down. I was in for the sprint since all the other races worked out that way. By the last four laps I was riding mostly on the front, since I was heavily marked from my win the night before. I was trying to keep the pace up but every time I let off the gas, the pack seemed to sit up with me. With three laps to go (~1500m) I looked back in the pack and noticed, surprisingly, that Ben, my biggest threat, was no where to be found! We kept on racing and with one lap to go, coming across the home straight, the whole field had sat up waiting for someone to start the sprint. Out of no where Ben appears at full speed and attacks the field.
Now Ben is at the ripe old age of 31 and has trained at an extremely high level in the past. I believe at one point in our conversations he mentioned that he tried out for the British pursuit team, and ran a 3:24-standing 3k, and a 1:06-flying kilo, only to barely miss out on making it. He has also set a few TT records across the pond, so this guy knows how to completely bury himself. He showed us this in the first event of this evening, 1000m, where he took the win, and then was on the ground at the awards area trying to throw up for the next 5 minutes. Suffering to the max.
So after the race I learn that he was completely dropped from the field, and managed not only to chase back onto the field but also threw in this massive attack. I was kind of caught off guard but managed to chase him down, just in time to recover for a few seconds on his wheel before he blew up and slowed down. At this point with 300m to go, I knew I had no choice but to sprint for the line. The sprint worked out well but one T&T rider managed to hold my wheel, sprinting from behind me at the last second while I was digging all the power out of every corner of my body to hold him off. In the end he nipped me at the line, but I managed to beat Ben which was what I needed for the overall.
My first cycling trophy!
All in all the trip was great. The grass track was a nice change from the hard tracks and especially the funky concrete 500m I raced on my last trip to Trinidad (blog June '07). Oh and it was very nice to actually race on this trip down, as the last trip was almost completely rained out.
As for the next big event on the schedule, I have been invited back to T&T for West Indies vs. The World in April 6-21. So a little more training and then we will return for 3 days of track and a couple days of road racing to round it all off.
The rest of the pictures from the trip.
So after a little time off the bike I was invited back to Trinidad and Tobago to race in the Southern Games. With two weeks to go, I jumped back on the bike. And put in as many miles as I could, a couple of efforts, and then it was off to the races.
The Southern Games consisted of two days of racing with 8 total cycling events. The biggest difference about this race is that it was held on a grass track. Now I know you are thinking how in the world, as any of the other tracks I have mentioned on my blog are all substantially banked. But this track is almost flat and about 450m long. During the games there was a full track and field competition taking place on the infield while track cycling raced around the outside.
The first day of racing was a quick learning experience since I have never raced the grass before. However I have raced a bit of cyclo-cross and I do mountain bike when I get a chance, so racing over bumpy terrain came very easy. The biggest difference while racing was that you could not "float" on the pedals, a key feature to track racing especially when you are drafting. Floating enables you to recover while you are still racing, and half of the game is conserving energy for when you need it the most. Therefore, racing came down to pure power and sprinting, since a breakaway was impossible because it was so hard just to keep the bike moving.
The international field consisted of 8 riders from T&T, 4 from the USA, 2 from the UK, one Spaniard, and one Canadian. From the international field, only the two British riders, Ben Elliot and Adam Duggleby, had considerable grass track experience because they have this type of racing back in the UK.
Ben on the left, Adam in the center, and Kelyn Akuna on the right
I have to give a big thanks to them for sharing all their knowledge on how to set up the bike for the grass. I think it came as a shock to most of us at just how slow the track felt. There was a couple days of rain just before the event and track soaked the moisture up, making it a little soft. After a few races we found that about 70psi was the right tire pressure, and we all figured out just how small a gear we had to ride to make the racing feel manageable. I ended up riding a 47x16 or 79" gear! For those of you not familiar with just how small this is; well on a hard track we race around a 90" gear and warm up in around an 84" gear. So a 79" gear is considerably small for racing...normally. In this case it was great, especially for me since I have developed a very nice, fast, spin from riding so many madisons over the last year. And this spin proved to be very dangerous.
The 8 races consisted of 500m, Match Sprints, 1000m, 2000m, 3000m, 8000m shortened to 5000m, 10,000m, and a Devil Takes the Hindmost (Miss and Out). In the end the promoter also decided to add a Keirin for the sprinters. On the first night of racing, I ended up getting second in the 2000m and a nice cap to the evening with a win in the shortened 8000m. On night two, I ended up taking another second in the 3000m to start off the evening. By the final event, the 10,000m, I was in competition for the Best Overall International Cyclist with Ben.
He was just coming off of a win in the Keirin, a few events earlier, and had also been digging supper deep in other races of the evening, so I thought I had a decent chance to pull off the win. The race started out easy with some small attacks but nothing getting to far away before getting chased down. I was in for the sprint since all the other races worked out that way. By the last four laps I was riding mostly on the front, since I was heavily marked from my win the night before. I was trying to keep the pace up but every time I let off the gas, the pack seemed to sit up with me. With three laps to go (~1500m) I looked back in the pack and noticed, surprisingly, that Ben, my biggest threat, was no where to be found! We kept on racing and with one lap to go, coming across the home straight, the whole field had sat up waiting for someone to start the sprint. Out of no where Ben appears at full speed and attacks the field.
Now Ben is at the ripe old age of 31 and has trained at an extremely high level in the past. I believe at one point in our conversations he mentioned that he tried out for the British pursuit team, and ran a 3:24-standing 3k, and a 1:06-flying kilo, only to barely miss out on making it. He has also set a few TT records across the pond, so this guy knows how to completely bury himself. He showed us this in the first event of this evening, 1000m, where he took the win, and then was on the ground at the awards area trying to throw up for the next 5 minutes. Suffering to the max.
So after the race I learn that he was completely dropped from the field, and managed not only to chase back onto the field but also threw in this massive attack. I was kind of caught off guard but managed to chase him down, just in time to recover for a few seconds on his wheel before he blew up and slowed down. At this point with 300m to go, I knew I had no choice but to sprint for the line. The sprint worked out well but one T&T rider managed to hold my wheel, sprinting from behind me at the last second while I was digging all the power out of every corner of my body to hold him off. In the end he nipped me at the line, but I managed to beat Ben which was what I needed for the overall.
My first cycling trophy!
All in all the trip was great. The grass track was a nice change from the hard tracks and especially the funky concrete 500m I raced on my last trip to Trinidad (blog June '07). Oh and it was very nice to actually race on this trip down, as the last trip was almost completely rained out.
As for the next big event on the schedule, I have been invited back to T&T for West Indies vs. The World in April 6-21. So a little more training and then we will return for 3 days of track and a couple days of road racing to round it all off.
The rest of the pictures from the trip.
