Friday Night Breaking Away 6/10/05 by Hillary Daniels

Last night was a busy night at the track. Lots of firsts for me: My first time riding with road pedals (I am a mountain biker at heart), my first time doing a time trail, my first time racing with the �big guys�, my first time racing with all women on the track, and my first time racing on a �real� track bike (I have been using my singlespeed cyclocross bike). I went to the track planning to do 2 national qualifier races: The 500m time trail and the scratch race, and I ended up doing so much more.

I should give you some background: There are very few women who race on the track so most of the time we are racing with men. On Wednesday nights there are three categories: A, B, and C. Since I am a beginner at this I have been racing with the C�s. On Friday nights there is no C category, only the Pro 1/2 and the elite 3 category that consists of category three racers and �invited� 4s. So where do women fit in? Well, most of the women racing have a bit of track experience and are at least cat 3, which makes them eligible to race with the men in that category. I, however, don�t quite have the experience or the points to upgrade to 3. So I figured that I would not be allowed to race on Friday nights with the 3�s. This was almost OK with me- they look really fast, it�s a pretty big group and I really don�t have all that much confidence yet. Needless to say, it was quite a surprise to me when I was signing up and the promoter asked me if I was going to race in the 3�s as well as the national qualifiers. I said I thought I wasn�t allowed since I�m a 4 but he responded that women can automatically move up a category to race with the men. I didn�t ask any more questions and signed myself up. Now the whole night of racing had a very different look to it: I had some hard racing coming up. My goals were to stay safe, not get in the way, and to try to stay with the pack for as long as I could.

The first race was a scratch race. My plan was to stay toward the back of the pack and high on the track where I wouldn�t get in anyone�s way. In that position I stayed with the pack until the final lap. Not so bad for my first race with the �big guys�.

The next race was the 500 meter time trial. I was first to go off. I had a good start but by the time I was 1/2 way around the track I was weaving like a drunk. When planning the race in my head I had the start down and I knew that I was going to have to pedal really hard but I didn�t spend any time thinking about keeping a straight line. Another lesson learned. 1 1/2 laps. Doesn�t seem too long but by the time I was done I was pretty tired. Despite my weaving all over the place I managed to get third place, which means that I qualified to go to nationals. (Too bad I won�t be here- I�ll be in Italy�)

The next race was the cat 3 points race. (Keep in mind that between races there is a lot of time- the cat 1/2s race, and there are sprint tournaments and kids races as well. During that time we just sit on our trainers) The points race was hard. Really hard. I was on a different bike, a rental bike from the track so that I could get a feel for a �real� track bike- very different but I think I like it. We did 15 laps with sprints every 3 laps. I got dropped the second lap, waited for the group to come around again, got back in the pack for another 1 or 2 laps and got dropped again, at which point I decided it would be wise to rest up for my final race, I was just wasting my energy trying to hang on to those guys, they were way too fast.

My final race of the evening was the women�s scratch race. There were only 4 of us racing but I was excited to get a race with all women. We did 20 laps. There were some vicious attacks but I managed to stay on them every time. About a third of the way into the race I realized that I was really tired. When the attacks would come they would almost get away from me- it was all I could do to stay on. However, I stayed with the 3 of them until the final sprint at which point I had nothing left, finishing in fourth place. And that was enough racing for me for the evening. My legs were tired!

I left the track feeling really good about all of the evening�s races. I had successfully made it through a lot of firsts and in the process I learned a lot (oh and did I mention I had FUN?!)

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