Day 1: 2014 National Track Championships
/Day 1 at the National Track Championships worked out well for Nine2FivePro. After an early start from the Nations Capital, Hans had a smooth drive down to Milton in time to get some training laps in on the newly minted velodrome. He had his oldie goldie track bike, a Hugh Porter whipping around the banking like it was old hat.
Anthony, Kyle, and myself had driven down the day previous, and so only had to get some breakfast and then head over to the track. After arriving at the velodrome, we stood in line to get our accreditation, basically hall passes to get to the infield.
Once on the infield, the first order of business was testing my pursuit bike setup, one to get used to riding the banking in the aero-position, and two, to figure out the gearing. After a few laps I was comfy riding in the tuck position, and put in a few fast laps using a 52x13 (or 105.2 inches in trackie-speak). It's a big gear, but the feeling is I should be able to roll it for the 4km pursuit, and going to a smaller gear will result in a cadence that is too high. Time will tell whether this logic runs true. One thing is certain about the pursuit however; it's going to hurt.
Before that however, I have to qualify just to get into the Omnium event, as there are 30 riders registered, and the track has a limit of 24 racers at a time. So, as if six races weren't enough, they are being front-loaded with 2 heats of qualification points races including 15 riders, where 3 riders from each heat will not move on to compete in the full Omnium. No pressure. And what a thing to qualify for...."Hey Mom, I qualified!"....."For what son!?"....."More pain!"...."Congratulations???..."
Anthony was as helpful as ever getting bikes setup and taking care of logistics. He got the details at the managers meeting after the training session to keep us riders in the know. And his son Kyle was on the infield, being his inquisitive self, a good reminder to take in the experience, and really appreciate how cool it is that Ontario now has a World Class Indoor Velodrome! What!!!???
But there is still racing to do, so on that note, it's time to shut down for the night to recharge the batteries for tomorrow's racing.
-Charlie
