The Aram Chronicles: Track and Metro Edition

I've had an absolute Killer (both figuratively and literally...almost) weekend. Where to start? Ok, this post will be cycling related, and I'll post again regarding everything else. So yes! The track! What? This is how it goes:

I slept Friday night with the intention of waking up and doing the Montrose ride. Woke up at around 7:45am, but I'd need a car to get to the start on time. I haven't had a car for a couple weeks (the cream wiz is out of order), so I went right back to sleep, and slept wonderfully for almost four more hours. So it's nearly noon when I get up. Wanted to ride, so figured the usual 4-5 hour trek through the 'Crest would do, but wasn't really feeling it. Opened up the socalcycling.com website for kicks. This event was listed for 3pm that day: "Carson Velodrome Indoor Track Series". I looked behind me, at my track bike, that I had not ridden in at least two months. It looked good. It always does. So I got my gear together, switched the pedals over from my road bike, opened up metro.net and found that I could get to within 2 miles of the indoor velodrome taking the Metro. I'd never done it before, but hey, spontaneousness, it's how I go. Stuff my backpack full of crap, with flip flops I gently ride the track bike downhill to the metro stop, and done. Switched trains in downtown, and got to Carson and rode about 15 minutes, and I was right there! With time to spare, for once! I've never raced on the track before. Only trained on it. Never done any kind of mass-start thing there. I'm a cat 5 on the track. Hmm. I had a vague understanding of the events...I know the points race -sprint when you hear the bell, lap the field, get points, do well. So after coming in through the wrong entrance (there's a seperate entrance for athletes), the guy on the loudspeakers kindly said "to the guy walking around [aimlessly] with the track bike, please enter the track through the athelete's entrance on the west side of the velodrome". Hm, okay. So I signed up for the star-studded cat 4/5 omnium. Three events. 24 lap points race. 10 lap tempo race. and the last race was basically just a crit on the track, for 20 laps. The field was bigger than I thought it'd be, 15 guys? Aron Gadila from Lagrange (who's a cat 2 on the road) was in my race, and seemed to know what he was doing (it would be his 5th time racing a track omnium, and he won every single one prior). I sponged what information I could from him, and then we lined up.

Points race.

Things were shuffled all weird and I couldn't get position when the first sprint came, but damn it was so much fun. It actually feels really safe, despite the fixed gear. So right after the first sprint, I found a little hole on the inside, and then said "adios" to the the main field, and attacked. Instantly, had a quarter lap. Half a lap, picked up some points in the next sprint. Aron bridged up to me, not surprisingly, but I didn't pull off the front, just kept driving it 'cause I wanted to lap the field myself. So I pulled off eventually, Aron set a hot pace, and I just hung out where I was. He lapped the field, and I stayed "up the road" to pick up 1st place points on the remaing sprints. Fun times, finished alone, and was able to actually drill it real nice. The bike felt great. Aron won, I was second.


Tempo Race.

10 laps. Leader of each lap gets a point, most points wins. This one was bad. In track racing, you do a neutral lap to start the race off. 5 meters into our neutral lap, the guy in front crashes. F!!!! We were going no more than 10 mph at this point!!! CMon guy. So yeah, i've finally had my first crash of the year. I tried to go up track to avoid the carnage, but it's so steep, that if you don't have speed you just slide down. I slid into Aron, actually. My fork came loose, and the front wheel shifted in the dropouts a bit. I forced it back into alignment, but it still didn't feel right. We started the race a couple minutes later, but I pulled out, 'cause I can't go full gas on a bike that *might* be okay. Eh.

20 Lap Crit (I forget what this is called officially...scratch race?)

Fixed and aligned the bike okay, and lined up. Not wanting another dumb dumb dumb crash, I was in front from the get go, neutral lap and all. So right as it was "race on" after the neutral lap, I attacked hard. To my surprise, everyone was still back there. hm? So I stayed at the front. There are no points in this one, just the finish. Set an okay tempo, but I was totally comfortable. Attacked again, there was a bit of division this time, but still a good number of guys with me. A guy came around me and picked up a prime. So then I found myself back at the front. Maybe 10 laps to go at this point? I looked back and said "cmon now, is anyone else going to attack???" I riled up one guy, who went to the front right as I said that, and set a real nice tempo, and only 5 remained in the lead group. He pulled off, I attacked hard, got a nice gap, but Aron bridged up after a few laps, and passed me to take the win solo. I cruised in for 2nd, again, and Fin.

Swell swell times at the track. I wish I had photos to post! I finished 2nd overall in the omnium, and won a bag of coffee and a pair of socks as a result. Yeahhaa. Big Money. Big Cars. Great times, and I'll definitely do it again. And with the metro! makes it all so much more enjoyable.