Hillary Daniels - At the Track Thursday May 18 and Wednesday May 25

I am really new to this track racing thing and to tell you the truth it is still quite scary to me. I have been going to the Thursday night points races which are a 40 minute race, with sprints every 10 laps. The longer race format slows down the field a bit and gives someone like me, who has a little bit of endurance, a chance to pick up points. Last Thursday, my first official day riding for NorCal Velo, I placed 4th overall in my category. Since I am so new to the track I race in the Cs. The few women who race the track have more experience than I & race with the Bs. Last Thursdays race was relatively slow, we did 90 laps in 50 minutes for an average speed of 22.5 mph. Sprints were every 10 laps and we would speed up for those but there was plenty of time to recover between. I was always in the front group, but the best placing in a sprint that I managed to get was second. However, I had enough lower 3 & 4th place finishes to finish overall in 4th place. Not so bad.

Wednesday night racing is a whole other story. Instead of having one long race, we do 3 short races then a 25 lap points race. The first race of the evening was a "win & out" which means that after a certain amount of laps (8 last night) we sprint and whoever wins is finished. The next time around the first person to cross the line is second, then the third time around we sprint for 3rd, 4th, and 5th. I didnt make the first 2 sprints but I sat in for a 5th place finish.

The next race was a shorter points race where we sprinted every 3 laps for a total of 9 laps. I finished 5th in that race as well. The third race of the evening was a scratch race where we do a certain amount of laps and whoever crosses the line 1st wins.

Points go to 4 or 5 places. I didnt score any points in that race, The 25 lap points race, our final race of the evening, was the most fun. Sprints every 5 laps for 25 laps. They put the "non-scoring" Bs with our group which ended up making the field faster than usual. I hung in and got points for one of the sprints but not enough to place in the top 5 for the race. Overall in the Omnium I finished in 7th place. Right now, though, just finishing the races without damaging myself means success to me. Being out there with a bunch of guys who are all bigger than I definitely scares me. However, with each night that I go out there I gain just a bit more confidence. It is quite a new experience, throughout all of the mountain, road, and cycloross racing I have done nothing quite compares to this.

Its pretty awesome! Until next time...

-Hillary

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