wiredfool

Whohoo! I didn’t get shelled! (for reference, see “track again”)

Last year, I had some similar performances. For most of the season, I was sucking wind off the back of the pack, trying vainly to keep up. Then 3 weeks before the end of the season, two of the old hands at the track suggested that I might want to increase my gearing a bit so tha I didn’t spin out so easily. It worked, dramatically. I was in contention for most of the races after I jumped up a couple of gears.

You would think that I’d learn that when I feel sluggish, I might want to try a higher gear. Apparently it took 2 months this year to figure that out. I moved up to a 92.5″ gear from a 90, and suddenly I can stay with the pack. Hopefully next year I’ll keep this in mind in May.

Three races, three sprints. Including one that was a pretty good lesson for not pulling a competitor up to your teammates. I nearly caught all three of them napping, only missing the front one at the line. Of course, if I had dealt with the penultimate sprint better, I would have been up with the front two the whole time.