Northbrook Velodrome 20070705

A few weeks ago I went to Northbrook for a night of track racing in memory of Beth Kobeszka. The night started with a solemn parade lap in her honor and it was really nice to see the support of the cycling community.

The first cat4 event was a Danish Win and Out. This race had a rolling start of 3 laps. Then when we heard the bell, we were racing for the win. The second lap was for 2nd place and so on until 5 places were awarded.

My strategy for this type of race is to target 2nd or 3rd place, since I typically don't have a strong enough sprint to go for the win. If you do go all out for the win and miss it, it is tough to recover for a subsequent sprint against the riders behind you who haven't gone all out yet. I had pretty good position going into the race for 2nd, but teammate Michael Kirby was in front so I just followed a wheel. He took 2nd and I took 3rd with no problem, with Rick Dearworth from xXx following up with 4th.

Danish Win and Out


The next cat4 race was the Unknown Distance. Before the start, the official said it would be between 3 and 8 laps. Like most all track events, we had a neutral start of one lap. After coming around for the start whistle Aaron Harrison (xXx junior) took off on a flyer to make things interesting. My legs were dead, in part due to racing a Masters 40+ event immediately prior to this one. The bell rang for lap 3 and I got up to sprint but it just wasn't happening. Michael Kirby took 5th for the team.

Unknown Distance


Next up, the first 17 minutes of the cat3 Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Grand Prix of Cycling, my first Superweek event of the year.