First Day of Competition

Hey people, I’m typing this well past my bedtime, its 11.30pm and I might as well be wired to a plug socket.  I think the 4 gels, 6 energy drinks, 3 bags of jelly sweets and 2 gallons of water might have something to do with it.

I woke up this morning with no nerves but was really apprehensive about the race.  I was terrified that I wouldn’t even make it into the Omnium; every competitor has to ride a short points race qualifier before they are even official at the world cup!! There is not much you can gain but you can lose a lot and waste a lot of time and money.  I went into the 60 lap race with bad images of the last outing I had in the Cali world cup.  My plan was not to go for the early points and gamble on getting a lap later in the race.  It turns out to be a gamble and I never got my lap.  With 25 laps to go I had no points and no lap and was suffering like hell.  I managed to sneak off the front and win the penultimate sprint and was second in the last one.  I qualified 5th in the race and was looking forward to the flying lap in just under 2hrs.

There is not much to say about the flying lap as its one lap as fast as you can go.  I did close to my PB I think and finished 6th, I was happy with that.  This is where it all goes wrong, next up was the points race.  I was bricking it and I would put money on it hurting a lot.  I’ll skim over the details as there is nothing good to talk about.  I finished 21st and it was a disaster. I found myself doing work I wasn’t fit for and it ranks as one of the hardest races I’ve done.  With no moral left I had an hour to try and get my head together and try to break the back of this elimination race. It’s a race I’ve come to dread.  My race went better but still nothing worth shouting about, 16th place and a slightly better race tactic.  I really started to get the hang of it but started to suffer then the tactics went out the door.

That, combined with three hours total on the rollers is a summary of what happened today. Please forgive the grammar but I think you’ll get the gist of how it went. 

Hopefully I’ll have better news for you tomorrow so I’m off to try and sleep.

M

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It just feels right…..

Image
Well, I never actually thought this day would come. All through my cycling career I’ve seen teammates old and new “retire.”   Something that I initially thought could be the worst thing ever to happen to me. As I sit here here now typing this it just feels right. Don’t get me wrong though, this decision I have not taken lightly. Something has just happened to me over the last 1-2 years and I can’t really pin point it. Okay, I’ve had a few crashes that have left metal inside me but I came back from them. I mean, I won a European medal 6 months after breaking my hip! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that its a mental thing. However, its not that simple. I really miss racing, even now when I’ve barely stopped. It just feels like a natural end though. For the last year I’ve been racing and under performing across the board. Frustration has been setting in all year and I’m sick of just turning up to bike races. I set my own bar by winning 7 medals in a row. Worl
Read more

Up to date...finally!

Image
A smart man said he read my blog and thought, "What's this crap, its out of date" So, part 2 of "out of date, up to date" I left you after I had somehow pulled a medal out of my backside and that's exactly how I feel. World Champ medals are hard to come by. I had the minimum amount of track time and a below average build up.  The only thing got me that medal was the desire to have it!  Anyway, America! A word that I have used a lot. This year though the meaning of it has slightly changed, just slightly. I'll come back to that some other time. My road season started off in Taiwan with a stage race and after that I was a blow in, B string crit rider. UHC have an awesome team and it's pretty hard to even get a start with them in the first place.  Honestly I never really got going with the crit guys and I'm not really sure why. I know I have the engine to do the job but mentally I wasn't there. I was willing and able to do what the
Read more
Just to be clear! I felt the need to say something because I feel like the “hard done by” theme is being put out there when it comes to myself. I am really happy! All the stuff you have been reading is true, not a word of a lie but people are jumping on the - lack of, shoulda, woulda coulda stuff. I loved racing bikes. When I got shit at racing bikes, I stopped! I still love the thought of racing but getting paid for it was becoming hard to do. I do feel that things need to change to help young athletes become champions. It’s not cycling that is the problem, it’s not the sports council’s problem, it’s not the sponsors fault, it’s ours! All these organizations meet demand to a degree, there are exceptions though! The sports that get the help in Ireland are the highest supported sports when it comes to bums on seats. There was a Class 1 UCI race held in Ireland last year. It was a track race, I was in it and it was held at Sundrive Velodrome. It was ran perfectly, ever
Read more