Oilers: On in 30 minutes

Yes. The Oilers start the Stanley Cup finals in half an hour. So this will likely be a short entry. The Oilers. Oh, I should mention that in my Oiler-Elation a few weeks ago, midway through their second round series, I told myself (almost like a prayer)..."if the Oil win the Cup, I'm getting an Oiler tattoo." I'll have absolutely no regret if (and hopefully, when) this materializes. What an amazing season.

Okay. My run lately hasn't been as impressive as the Oil, no. That is impossible, but I had a pretty nice weekend. I won my track omnium on saturday...Three races, I finished 2nd, 1st, and 2nd, for 1st overall. Here's the [brief] breakdown:

Race 1: Unknown Distance

Basically a crit on the track, but you don't know how long the race will be, all you hear is a bell, meaning 1 to go. So we did five laps, I put in a nice little attack, get a gap, stay away for a couple laps, but gah!! no bell! So it comes together, no one attacks after they brought me back, so after recovering, I attacked again, almost cerrrtain that a bell was coming: nope. lap 14 comes, they bring me back again, and one lap later, they ring the bell and some guy comes around me and I could not come around in time. Bummer.

Race 2: Tempo Race

This is the one I DNFed last time. No neutral lap crashes this time, and I did well. Picked up lots of points, including the 3pts at the end, and won handily. Not much else to say.

Race 3: Scratch Race

Attack, Attack, Attack, I even chased one guy down, last lap came, and It was pretty much the same thing as my first race, not enough time to make the pass and win it. But, I sealed up the omnium. Oh! The 3rd place guy had the nerve to protest my riding in this race. "He cut off my sprint!" Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight guy. How 'bout we settle it on road bikes? I'll give you a 100 meter head start to 200 meters, annnd I'll use one leg. Seriously, some people...

But yes, the track was great. Suuuuch a contrast to criterium racing (really not even in the same ballpark as road racing). So I went from doing 5-minute long track races to doing a 190 minute 100k criterium the following day. A bit of a dilemma: didn't have a ride out to Costa Mesa. Checked a map, and the last metro stop was 20 miles away from the race, and that was pretty much my only choice. I left almost 3 hours ahead of time. Get to the race, distraught, figuring I missed the start for sure. I get there, riders are lined up! "Vera! Vera! Got time for one more??" "Wow, yeah. Sign this....pay us after" She radioed the start finish guys, pinned me up, and I make the start! Completely unreal and unexpected...the envelope for procrastination really cannot possibly be pushed any further...and yeah. CBR put on a killer race, great great course (though there were some truly gnarly and random crashes), and they still allow me to race despite my tardiness....I'll post photos later, game's on in 15. Adddddio!