Keefer Madness

Third Ace Speedway Race – Third Place

// August 5th, 2008 // Cycling, Personal Crap

Tonight was my third trip out to Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, North Carolina for their Tuesday night criterium series. The first two resulted in fourth place finishes with a starting field of less than 10.

Tonight was a little different – with a bigger field and in the end, a slightly better result. At the start line, we had 18 racers, double the field of the previous race two weeks back. The sky looked about ominous and we heard some distant thunder early on in warmups, but it held off for all three races this evening.

So my constant and common downfall in my racing this year has been patience. I end up off the front, pulling in every race. Tonight I didn’t and it made a big difference. My heartrate was lower throughout and I had more at the end. I had one teammate again this week – Greg. The two of us were on each others’ wheels almost the entire race. For the most part, we stayed up front the entire time.

It really helps having a teammate to work back and forth with you and give you a spot in the paceline when you get caught out in the wind. We also did some encouragement back and forth.

There wasn’t a lot of note to say about the race, other than I never pulled. I stayed on someone’s wheel the entire race and always had a lot of energy and strength in my legs to chase down the little breaks that did actually happen. I’ve learned that keeping contact with the front people is the safest and also the most efficient way to cruise through a criterium.

I literally felt great the entire race – no huffing and puffing, no heart beating out of my chest and no soreness nor stiffness to mention! My teammate, Greg also felt the same way. This was also Greg’s third outing to Ace, racing the other two times I had as well. Big difference from him though. The first two times, he got lapped and dropped by the field, but this time he was a hell of a lot stronger, the two of us sticking together.

Anyway, the race flew by. Before I knew it, the lap cards came out, letting us know we had less than 10 laps to go on the oval track. We continued to sit in, and with two laps to go, the pace picked up. As the bell rang for the final lap, there was a big surge. We both stayed near the front, keeping a wheel. In turn number three though, the lead guy who had worked a ton throughout the race (payback for two weeks ago maybe?), went from the inside wall and jerked hard to the right and up the track, almost causing a major domino effect. Luckily, no one fell, but it did cause some of us to have to go high on the track to pass.

Greg was able to slip lower and it was a huge sprint finish. Greg was able to sprint to secure a nice cushioned first place, and I barely was able to sprint and hold onto a third place finish.

Greg and I will get our medals – gold and bronze respectively at the next Ace race.

All in all, it was satisfying and justifies what everyone has said and I’ve known. Patience and the power of the peloton can really help you conserve. It was so cool to finally place, receiving my first medal. That makes four top ten finishes this season and it’s a wonderful feeling to see and experience my fitness and weight improvements as this season progresses.

Ace Speedway 08-05-2008 “C” Race GPS Data