Sun, Jan 21/07 – Women’s Scratch Race
 
Did I say the 5 km Women's Scratch race was going to be blazing fast?? This was probably the biggest surprise of the weekend for me. I threw on a big gear in preparation for the race, thinking it'd be hard from the gun and wouldn't slow up til the finish line. After all, this is a World Cup, right? For those of you who might not be that familiar with track cycling, you have to choose one gear to put on your bike and that’s the one you’re stuck with for the race.
 
Well, the race started and we “rode the rail” (SLOWly around the track, spread out all over the place). Then it was slow, fast for a bit, slow, fast, slow – just enough accelerations to slam the legs for someone with a big gear on their bike. Apparently all the sprinters just wanted to wait for a sprint finish. They even let a few riders get away (should have tried that)
 
During one of surges, American Becky Quinn cut down the track right in front of me and I had to put on the brakes (so to speak). Wow – these gals are aggressive! In the process, about three quarters of the pack passed me and I had to chase it down. When it finally came down to the real sprint at the end, I couldn’t get on top of the massive gear and finished outside the cut to qualify for finals. This was a really strange race as it didn’t really feel like an actual track race. Even Canadian Scratch race specialist Gina Grain almost didn’t make the cut in her equally strange heat, barely squeeking through to the final.
 
Since I’ve never had the opportunity to even see any World Cup racing, I was going in blind to the tactics the riders would try and the speeds of the mass start races. Well, another lesson learned… qualifiers are slow so I’ll have to change my approach to racing and gearing for the next one. After my experience at my first World Cup track race, I’ve learned a lot of things that I’ll be able to apply to the next World Cup – and that is only 4 weeks away in Manchester, England!
 

 
Some interesting tidbits from the weekend:

• The ADT Center Velodrome is part of the Home Depot event Center –home team to David Beckham’s new American soccer club.
• L.A. had a rare snowstorm last week, wreaking havoc in the mountains east of the city.
• World Pursuit Champion Sarah Hammer and won all 3 women’s endurance events on her home track, breaking her own U.S. record in the Individual Pursuit and winning the Scratch race by leading out with 3 laps to go – noone could come around her.
• - I was overwhelmed by the number of SRM’s on bikes – I would conservatively estimate at least 75% of the bikes had them!

• Thurs, Jan 25: guest appearance at "The Inside Ride", presented by Ursula Franklin Academy and Coast to Coast Against Cancer.
• Sun, Feb 11 (date tbc): CBC Radio's "Inside Track" with host Robin Brown - an audio journal on my first World Cup experience
• Fri, Feb 23 - Sun Feb 25: World Cup #4 - Manchester, England

• Team R.A.C.E and Paul Devries - without you this would not be possible. Thank you for your support in getting the Track team up and running.
• Colleagues, family, friends and teammates for your support.
• Steve Karpik - while some teams had a staff of 10 or 20, I had Steve - Volunteer coach, manager, mechanic, driver, psychologist, friend. You name it, he did it. Steve's parting words: "at least I've got 4 weeks to rest"
• Todd Hayes - thanks for loaning me your disc wheels, SRM, cogs, rollers, spare front wheel, etc, for helping out in L.A. and for being my rabbit during training.
• Joanna Wiersma - thanks for the lid.
• Rob Good and Forest City Velodrome - thanks for providing a track to train at!
• Dennis Lindsay (personal torturer), Milton Bingham (massage), Lynda Mainwaring (sports psychologist).