day 05 – sting

once again churchy lent me his KHS to race on the final day of track 2011. it was day 5 of the carnival and being held at dunc gray velodrome. i met up with churchy and we drove down in the stagea and K and the boys came down later on to watch.

K was really impressed with the speed the racing is… more the others than me. having sore legs and that hiatus from riding i thought it best to just run around in D Grade. it could maybe, possibly be classified as sand bagging but even still i didn’t exactly blow everyone off the boards so it was probably the right choice.

race 1 was a warm up scratch and i had a poke way too early end fell back to around 5th place across the line. i think the lack of racing riding had me super pumped and a little to eager. i tried to move from the back of the bunch around the outside of the pack on the 2nd last lap and by the time i had i couldn’t help myself and just ran it to the line.

race 2 – a graded wheel race and i ended up being let off at the 55m mark. with no idea how it all worked even before the straight i had been taken by another rider and i just never jumped with enough speed to catch him or the bunch. finished last pretty much.

race 3 – KIERIN! i have always wanted to race a keirin. i ended up lining up as the first off the fence and sat behind the durney [which was being ridden by sean eadie] until it pulled off. with the gurney off and the drag gone it hit me like a tonne of bricks that i had to work so much harder leaving its’ draft. i still sat and on the last lap kicked it with a better timing than before but still not perfect. i finished 2nd.

race 4 – missing out points was again a case of bad management from me. off the fence i was in last wheel and i just never had enough in the legs to make it past the main bunch and by lap two i was out. so much to learn

race 5 – a combined scratch. basically you can pick any race and by now i had my brain almost in the right order and finished 3rd across the line, but again i had jumped a little too early and just ran out of gas.

as per usual we made our way to canley vale for special pork chop with the fam, churchy and andrea.
track again was so addictive. i really want to get to more in 2012 and props to churchy for lending me the KHS

this is my favourite pic of the meet