After years of procrastinating I got myself back to the velodrome for some track style race action. The last time I raced track was in 1998 at the Hellyer Park Velodrome in San Jose. I have been hitting up the Wednesday night training sessions for the past month or so. On Saturday I managed a 2nd place in the snowball race. That was kind of a shock to me since I hadn’t wound up a nice sprint in competition in a long time. I got a tasty leadout with 1/2 a lap to go on lap 5 and came around and got the guy by about 1/2 a wheel. In the next race I struggled and fell off the pace. I was undergeared and like a knucklehead I left my cogs and sprockets at home. The last race was a 32 lapper with sprints for points every 8. I went off the front twice trying to jack up the race and it nearly worked. I got nabbed and lost out on the points on lap 24. After that the field was busted all apart and the officials pulled everyone except the first 3 racers with 2 to go. I ended up tied for 4th in the omnium which is nice. It feels good to know that even at 39 I can still stick it to some of the younger guys!
I went up to SF for ad:tech last week. I took BART over to visit my granny in the hospital. That train ride brought back all sorts of memories from years ago. The urine smell was noticeable like usual way down in the Powell St station. The same squeaky ride, the same deal all around. More to come…
