But I am getting ahead of myself. This was a weekend with only one race that happens to be just an hour away... at the south end of Seneca Lake, the next finger lake to the west of Cayuga Lake. The race was also an evening event since the track was being used for the motor sports it was designed for earlier in the day. All that meant that I didn't have to actually get off my duff to do anything race related until 4PM. I was all set to sleep in, and woke up nice and late at 7:45 AM. Then it was off to work for a couple of hours before becoming one with my camp chair in the shade of my back "patio" with a book for company. I can't remember the last time I just sat and read all day. It was quite relaxing (almost too much so) and felt much needed. I almost decided not to go to the race I was having such a pleasant read. But up to the race I went. Ruth and LiLynn commented that I was looking too relaxed to actually race my bike. I felt that way, but I did a few openers on the roads around the track during my warm up and started to feel the blood pumping as I lined up with 18 other open women.
We started in the grand stand in the pit lane. That met up with the main track as we started screaming down around "the 90" and up through the "esses". Down the back stretch we were into the wind and then it was super fast down into the Boot - in the women's field we hit 37 around that down hill curve in "the boot" (the men were up around 42). That was doing almost a 180 at 37 with no need to hit the brakes. Whew that was fun! 10 degree banking helps a lot with that :-). The climb out of the boot had a short steep pitch and then it deceptively kept on climbing. It was false flat up after the boot before flattening out for the sprint back into the grandstand area.
The women's race was 45 minutes and we did 5 laps around the 3.4 mile course. In the first lap I was a little unprepared for the 90 and dropped back (unnecessarily) and then had to move up again climbing through the esses. I again dropped back going into the boot (we did not get a chance to preview a loop so I was being a bit cautious). Climbing out of that first turn though I moved to the front and pushed the pace pretty hard all the way out of the boot and back through to the grandstand - hoping to drop some of the women, but everyone stuck strong.
In lap two I did better with not dropping back on the downhills - no need with the banking :-) and I also decided not to lead up the hill, just sat second wheel. Lap two was a Prime lap and the sprint was pretty fierce. It caught me a little off guard, but I hung with so it was OK. Going into lap three they told us it was another prime lap so after leading on the back stretch and sitting second wheel on the climb out of the boot, I was ready for the acceleration but did not contest it. Going into lap 4 I knew we had one lap left and they told us it was ANOTHER prime lap. So off we went. I think I sat 2nd - 4th wheel most of the way around but came forward out on the climb and stayed there out of the boot. I was on the front coming around towards the strait away into the grandstand. Not a great place to be if you want to contest a sprint, but I also know my acceleration limitations... knowing I take longer to accelerate than I should for a "sprint" but that I can hold a fairly high speed for a while. So I decided to try starting the sprint my style... that is to say ramp it up slowly and keep on ramping. I started pretty darned early and I think the rest of the field thought I would burn up and fall to the side... but I just kept pouring on the gas and by the time they needed to do something about it I was still going. I actually managed to take the prime by a bike length! I almost fell off the bike in shock. The last lap was tough - probably our fastest yet and the field finally split coming up out of the esses and into the back stretch. I made the front group and did find on the climb in the boot, but felt the loss of all the matches I burned in the sprint for the prime (maybe none of the others were sprinting because they didn't want to empty the tank in time for the last lap... that would explain me being able to win a sprint at all, much less one from the front). I lost focus and contact on the top part so finished several seconds off the front 5. I still managed a 6th place and some cash (almost my entry fee back) and a nice saddle bag and t-shirt for my prime. Results are posted. The photos above are courtesy of Dave Heck. Jim Danvers was out shooting pictures but I have not seen any posted thus far. I will keep an eye out. Michael Zollo was also out shooting the races and he has a few separate galleries of the women's race. I am not in the warm-up gallery, however i am in the other three.
I don't know anything about NASCAR, but I was surprised by how much elevation change there was on the course. The pavement was very nice and the whole course plenty wide and the curves banked. So very easy to do at speed. There was no need to hit the brakes at any point on the course at all.
The week after the race was busy training my new employee (Yay I am no longer going to be the only person there!) and getting ready for the Rognlie family to visit :-) they came east from Bozeman for a music event in DC (where they spent their first week) and then to see some of the Ithaca institutions of higher education. More on that soon - we have spent some good time out birding and taking pictures.
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