Sprint Mania!

Last night was the first Sprint Mania event. Groups of 3 riders, seeded by previous 200m times, did three 2-lap heats over the course of the evening. I was SO excited to finally participate! I'd been waiting 2 years and now I was actually able to race. I had an idea of how a sprint race was supposed to work. Jane and I have been "playing reindeer games" on Sundays when we get bored with our regular workout. It's a total blast to psyche out your competitor or find ways to hide and get the jump on them.

They let the really fast guys go out first so we all sat around watching their tactics and listening to Bilko scream from the infield "GOOOOOO!!! GOOOOOO!!!!" whenever he saw a perfect opportunity for someone to get the jump. It was even funnier because no one could hear him or knew what an opening they had so they'd just keep rolling around looking at each other, which made Bilko even more frustrated and animated.

In our first heat, I got up high and was going to let my 2 competitors make a jump so they could lead me out. There was a wicked headwind on the backstretch so I didn't think I could hold it the whole way. Lesson #1 - I hesitated just enough when they jumped so I missed their wheel and couldn't make up the ground and came in 3rd. Rats. Never again!

After watching another round of the other riders, it was very apparent that 9 times out of 10, the person who surprises the others keeps their lead and wins. So in my 2nd heat I led the others around crazy slow and kept an eye to see if they were planning anything and tried a few fakey moves. But the second time on Turn 1, I decided to surprise them and got the jump. I sprinted as hard as I could and never looked back, but about 10 meters from the finish, the guy in our heat started to come around me. Good enough for 2nd and if I'd been a bit stronger could have won it. My sneak attack was fun and seemed to work well.

Third heat - take no prisoners. Again I led them around super slow. I knew that I didn't have real sprinters with me so no need to give them an advantage by ramping up the speed. At Turn 4 one of them went, albeit a little too slowly and not with the best commitment, so we got on her wheel and let her pull us around. At the turn for the finish I went around the first two and just nipped Lara at the end. Finally!

It was a really fun night and we all learned a lot. This sprinting thing is a GAS! I'd much prefer a thinking, tactical, 800 meter game over a boring 40 mile road race any day. At some point I hit 32.2 mph. Gotta beef up the legs even more!