Burnaby Velodrome Fall Challenge 2007 - Sunday 2 1sts

Three races today. A 3x20 Points Race, Unkown Distance and 50 Lap Snoball.

Jason Manning who was killing me Friday and Saturday wasn't racing today. He had a crash late last night doing a Kierin and didn't feel up to racing today. I can say that if he had showed up today, he only needed to get a couple of 3rd/4th place finishes to maintain his lead in the Omnium points total. I would not have been able to catch him EVEN with two 1sts... and if the past two days are a guide, it's likely we would have split the two for a 1st and 2nd each again.

The 3x20 Points race was a toss up for tactics... Long enough to be good for me, but only three sprints... I needed to get two sprints so could not count on a single big effort. I worked up the group at about lap 15, then managed to lead out for the sprint... and got it. Let the second sprint go, the field was frustrated and wanted to hammer, I just sat at the back. Then for the final sprint started moving up towards the front, at which point the field started to panic as they thought I was going over the top... fat chance with 15 laps to go..

But the panic worked, as it got someone to pickup the pace, then with with about 6-8 to go and I just go on their wheel, followed and went over, I think with 2 laps to go, with a nice gap.

Unknown distance races are always just a crap shoot... you do your best, try and crack the field apart, and when the bell goes (for B groups 6-9 minutes) you hope you have a position that you can win from... The problem is that it is too short to tire everyone out, and when the bell goes everyone tries to go.... I didn't need to win it so just stayed safely to the rear. Good call as there where two different crashes, the final was two riders going down just after the bell rang and everyone tried to sprint at once.

The final race was a 50 lap Snoball. In this race you get one point for going over the line in the first lap, two for the second lap, three for the third, until finished. This makes the final laps the best as they give you the most points. There are something like 1200 points available, and in the last few laps you get 40-50 points per lap.

Snoballs, like Tempo or Point-a-Lap tend to go fast. snoballs are just faster as you get farther along. Long ones like this, suit my power profile to a T... I'm just getting warmed up and ready to do a big push when everyone else is cooked...

I hung around at the back for about the first 25 laps, then moved towards the front. Got into the pace line and just waited to get to the front. Then picked up the pace to get a small group at the front, and just swapped laps with anyone who was able to get to the front. I was happy to get every 2nd or 3rd lap as even though the pace was high, that meant I wasn't pushing enough power to be burning any matches, leaving me able to do the big jump at the end.

At about lap 42 I jumped over the top, got a gap and took 5 laps, and then got pipped at the line for the final one by Mandy Pointras who managed to bridge up and out sprint me for the final lap. I could hear her coming, but after being out there for 6 laps couldn't get much over about 430 watts for the final sprint. She was tired too after bridging and catching me.. But that was a two lap effort so she had just enough to tag on, get her breath and then come over at the finish. Very nicely done on her part.