ironclm wrote:
Gold medal at the Masters Track World Championships in the scratch race! Great way to start out the week.
Thanks. I barely made the final, finishing 11th in my qualifying heat. 12 riders advanced. I was in the cat bird seat for most of the heat, sitting 3rd wheel. I wanted to go to avoid getting swarmed, but kept thinking, "one more lap". Then at about 6 to go I did get swarmed and was frankly kind of scared because I haven't raced on a 250m track since 1999 and haven't been in a field this big on any track since 2009. It worked out, but pointed out to me that I had to race from the front as I don't have what it takes to do what Larry did in the qualifier, sit at the back and then fly past everybody towards the end.
In the final I went about 5 laps in. We got caught after a few laps so I recovered for a bit in the pack and went again and that was that. The Canadian with the unpronoucable name was super strong. As we closed on the back of the field he went off alone and caught the field about a lap before me and the other guy did. At that point I knew I had to just move up, move up, move up. I was lucky enough to tag onto Larry Nolan as he was bridging a gap and got into about 6th wheel for the last two laps. I was on the rivet, but held my position and finished ahead of the other two. The guy in second I guess thought he had won. He was the strong one. I guess I passed him on the pole while he was higher up looking for somebody to come by from that side and didn't know I was ahead of him. I didn't know for sure that I had won for a good 10-15 minutes after.
I got a little misty on the podium when they played the national anthem.
IP tomorrow, Points race on Thursday and Team Pursuit with Larry, Don Langley and Shaun Wallace on Saturday.
Kevin
http://kevinmetcalfe.dreamhosters.com My Strava