Recap of Day 4

Last day of races... mixed with joy and sadness at being almost done with it all.
Not to mention that it would be a long long day.

First up at noon were the 2k and 3k Time Trials. Ugh. I think just about every rider that came back from the TT dropped to the mattresses in total exhaustion, coughing up a lung or two. Absolutely disgusting effort. The cold dry air did quite the number on a few of us too - we all had similar symptoms: hard to breathe, feels like a hot burning wire down the throat into the chest, congested chest cough, and whatever was coughed up tasted mildly of blood. Mmmmm. Doesn't that sound healthy? I think winning races comes down to your opponents' relative state of health. Seriously.
RESULTS
Flo's 2k time was 2'59" (and she really nearly died - she's still recovering in bed with a crazy fever as we speak)
My 3k time was 4'26" (a whole 12s slower than at Burnaby in August - and the pain, oh the pain! why?! why?!)
Alex's 3k time was 3'52" (he seemed slightly unhappy about that)
Colin's 3k time was 4'05" (which he didn't like, but honestly, he's a sprinter, so...)

By the time all that shebang was over with, it was about 6pm and time for flying laps. Yay!! These were used as qualifiers for the Sprint Tournament (super fun!). Flo and I did not make it through, with respective times of 9.879s and 9.537s. Flo was crazy to do it whilst so sick - but she's a super-trooper :D And I'm just happy because the last time I was at the London track, my flying lap was 10.3s, so hurray for improvement!

But the big news here are the boys: Alex qualified for the A-sprint tourney with a flying lap of 8.637s and Colin for the B-sprint with a time of 8.878s (just to tell you how close the times were). Both put out an AMAZING display of tactics and speed, digging in deep to get that energy from who-know-where to get themselves to the semi-finals. You have to understand that every single rider participated in this, so it was mixed categories of Cadet, Jr Men/Women, Elite Men/Women, and Masters. Our boys went up against the fastest of the fast: and lost in the semis. BUT, that allowed them to go to the 4th-8th place finals.... And they did a great job! They both placed 5th in A and B sprint tourney!! Way to go boys! There was some deep talent in there, very impressive.

I had to wait for-ever until my 50 lap Scratch race, which started around 8pm. They pooled together the Cadets and the Elite Women to create a larger field, but scored us according to our respective categories. I actually finished this race, and I'm pretty proud of that because I DNF-ed at Burnaby. Turns out I took 2nd place for Elite Women. Yay!!

As if it wasn't enough for the boys, they had the pleasure of a 75lap Scratch Race to finish the night off at 9pm! Well once again, we have no clue from where they got the energy or the legs. Even after claiming that they were "toasted", Alex finished 2nd and Colin finished 5th! Way to go boys!!

The awards ceremony that night saw a Alex claim silver in the Jr Men's Omnium (all 5 events) and a surprised Sophie take bronze in the Elite Women's Omnium.

What a weekend :D

Recap of Day 3

And we're off to the races!!
Here's what happened on Friday...

How exciting: first off, the Elite sprint tournament.
I went head's up against Karine (from QC) and lost. I had never even practiced the whole "cat-and-mouse" thing, so I'm just really happy to have had the chance to try it out. Can't wait until next time :D

Then we did 500m races, chariot-style, i.e. three people together on the track, going for 500m individually. It's a good way to get through the races quickl,y and it provides a little incentive to push harder; catch whom ever is in front or don't let the person behind catch up. Either way, it's good times.
RESULTS
Flo placed 3rd for Jr Women with 40.78s
I placed 3rd for Elite Women with 41.86s (beat my Burnaby time of 42.98s)
Alex placed 4th for Jr Men with 37.24s
Colin 5th for Jr Men and 37.51s
*** N.B. Colin jumped out of the gates 1/2 sec too early, and so was penalized 1sec... His "real" time was thus 36.71 ***

And finally, we finished the night off with Points Races: 60 laps around the track with 3 sprints for points in there. I'm sure glad I wasn't racing Elite Men, since they had 50 laps to qualify for the 138 laps Points Race. Yikes! Definitely one for the endurance type folks.
RESULTS
Flo finished 1st (Jr Women) with 7pts
I came in 3rd (Sr Women) with no points
Alex placed 1st (Jr Men) with 11pts
Colin placed 8th with no points

Great work everyone!!