8/10
It is already the last day of competition at the track. Time has moved by quickly, especially since I have been fairly busy every day, as can be seen by the lack of any writing since the racing has begun. Some things have changed since the evening before competition. Most notably has been our health. Rich has gotten sick with some invader that has affected his stomach and energy levels. Because of this he did not fair well in the points race and skipped the Madison, also. Holloway has also been suffering with a sinus problem that is very persistent in making him feel sub-par. And, lastly, I have been battling it out with some allergy or the onset of a cold that has been with me for about four days now. Despite the health problems, we have attempted to push on through it all in the racing.
In a short recap of the past three days of racing, Holloway was the first to impress the rest of us here at the championships. In the scratch race the first night, he played the race out tactically well to his strengths and went off the front with about twelve laps to go in the race. After being joined by others, and taking the strongest pulls throughout the breakaway, the group gained a sizeable amount of about a half a track. This gap stuck until so very close to the end; a charging field caught him with two laps to go. I think Holloway had the whole USA team on the edge of their seats and got us off to a pretty good start.
After Holloway’s ride, the next exciting racing came from Ben. In the keirin, Ben made it all the way to the finals. However, he lost his chance for a medal when he hit the wood hard. I was not there to watch this race, but I know he came out with some nasty splinters that had to be removed by a doctor. It’s an unfortunate thing when something that is simply bad luck happens so close to the end, but, as they say, it is bike racing and you just have to except it and move onto the next bike race.
After my qualifying ride in the pursuit yesterday, I had to accept some disappointment, also. I rode a strong pursuit, but it was simply not fast enough in the overall scheme of things. After last year’s medal, I set a goal to become a world pursuit champion this year, but I fell short. In the qualifying, I rode to a fourth place time. Since they deleted the first round competition from the program this year, I was stuck in the bronze-medal ride. It was not the ride I was hoping to return to in the evening, but I had to accept that two other girls would be returning to the preferred ride, instead. Therefore, I arrived at the velodrome last evening to ride for a bronze medal. I rode a little faster than the qualifying time in the morning, and won the medal by a convincing three seconds. It was a bit bittersweet in that I was happy to be on the podium, but not too happy about which step I was standing on. There’s still more racing to go though; there’s more bike races to come.
