Mortiz Spints #3

Hey Carroll! Thanks for coming out boss...what an unexpected and very cool surprise!

A recap of the nights sprints:

I've only done two match sprints...ever. Both in the same night against the same guy, and lost them both.

Tonight was a no points, tiny prizes sprint night. I only came out to get more experience in order to do well in the July TX cup sprints...same sponsor, but there are points on the line next time.

For this one, we listed all racers in order by 200m time trial time...I was second to last among the 12 adults. I went out at an effort of somewhere between sandbag and blow up the legs. Honest effort, but I didn't kill it or drill it.

This put me in the 'C' group...3rd of 4 (each group has 4 riders). We raced in a round robin fashion, so you are guaranteed to race at least 4 times.

Race 1 - me vs. Lindsay...her first track sprint. She had the lead position and took off from the gun, effectively giving me a wheel to sit on for two laps, so I did. Came around her on the last lap and rode to my first sprint victory. I suspected she had no strategy or knowledge of sprinting, so I offered some tips post-race, and she was happy to take them.

Race 2- me vs. David Woolcock. David was fastest TT effort in our group, and I've been racing him in crits and track for two years. We are reasonably well matched. I had the "back" position, and jumped on the last lap, holding him off at the line by "not much". I'm now 2-0...cool.

Race 3 - me vs. Glen. I was pretty sure David had beaten Glen pretty soundly when they raced so I had a decent shot at it. Again, I had the behind position, and managed to either come around or dive low to get ahead and just drilled it to the line for the win. 3-0.

The next thing they do is take the top 2 finishers (me and David) and set us up in a best 2 of 3 for 1st and 2nd place. 3rd and 4th get a one race match for the "bronze" (if there were actual medals).

So...Race 4 - I'm in the back yet again (this is all coin toss luck), and just watching David as we go progressively faster. At some point we started sprinting (I've already forgotten how it played out), full bore, and may have been the closest finish of the night. I got beat by mere inches. 3-1 overall, 0-1 in the gold medal round.

Race 5 - win or go home. I'm leading out. I'm riding the red line, which technically leaves the sprinters lane open, but my bars are hanging into it, making it a less than desirable choice for the back rider. I'm watching...I'm watching....there he goes! He jumps me around the start/finish with 1 to go. I react...we're sprinting through one and two, me in the lane, him on the outside...and passing me. On the back stretch I tried to get my legs to spin faster and hold him on the outside and they responded with something along the lines of "siddown fool!". I sat up and watched him sprint off to the first place overall and the $25 prize that went with it. My prize money went to the Superdrome Youth Devo fund. They still need it more than I do.

Great racing. My biggest mistake of the night was grabbing my 50T chainring instead of the 49T I meant to grab, so I was running a slightly higher gear than necessary for the wind conditions (south wind, 20mph). This was only in the final rounds, not the early ones.

Recovery ride tomorrow...zero intensity, cuz the legs are toast with jelly :)

Cyclist to pray for: Andrew F.

DB