Hey all y'all!

An update from this weekend of racing! The second and final TrackFest was this weekend here in Victoria, BC, and out little club did very well!

Evan in the 'C' category unfortunately had only one competitor in the Omnium, and none in the Bunch Races, so he did no worse than 2nd in any event! =) Thrown in with the 'B' racers, he did amazingly well, remaining in contact with the bunch for almost all the races! He's inspired, and looking forward to a solid winter of training, and joining the B's full-on for next year.

Media

Been playing with the video setting of my camera and software, here's a couple vids i've put together.

Enjoy!

Four OA racers at the track tonite for the 'Epic Points Race'! Two in A, and two in B.

Emile and i roll out in a pack of 11, and it starts off rather slow, and remains much that way until the first sprint. Bob Cameron, our main 'threat' is off like a rocket, Emile is on him, and i blow through the field to get the 4th point. I keep the pace up through the sprint in order to try and drop a few people.

A good night for the guys in green! It's the first half of Omnium Week at the track. An Omnium is an event combining five events to declare an overall winner. Tonight saw the first three events: the flying 200m sprint, a 500m ITT (normally a Kilo, but no need to put people through that ;) and a 5km Scratch race (4km for the B's). (The Omnium concludes on Thursday with a 3km Pursuit, and a 16km Points Race.)

Another weekly race, Emile and i were there, tho so was Don Gillmore, whom i've called 'The Immortal'. He's insanely strong, last year he lapped the field TWICE solo in a points race.

The A field has been nice and big, about 10 riders tonite.

It was pursuit night last Monday at the track, i had it all planned out for myself -- get up to and hold 43kph. That's all i had to do, and i'd get a solid time. This was after careful consideration of the weather conditions and my fitness. That would get me a time in the mid 5:30's, which would be fine for this time of the year.

Did i listen to myself? Nope.

I started off, and by the time i sat, i saw i was going 45kph.

No prob, i thought, i just kept my legs spinning, no pressure.

Tonite was the first Pursuit night of the year! A small group of us did 3K
efforts to begin the year. Marty rode against Mike Chandler, who's got a
lot of experience in this event, and was nudged out by 7 seconds. Mike got
a big lead on Marty, which he closed a great deal, but in the end Mike
successfully kept the pressure on.

My own effort was against Marcus, and i strategized carefully for this.
First, after racing him on Thursday, i know he's strong, but i'm stronger..
Second, he hasn't really done pursuits, so will likely go out too hard....

Full details posted on my blog:

http://cycling.thenoisies.com/2008/03/first-race-of-year-caleb-pike.asp

In brief:

There are photos as well, we're definitely the most sharp looking riders out there!

Congrats to Kevin who finished 8th in the larger B group (~20 starters) in
his first time on the course, and Marty who finished 11th in his first RR in
several years! I finished 6th in the A's, but it's really not that
impressive, as that's out of six. Nine started, but three DNF'd..haha..
Still, that'll keep my name fairly high in the local league rankings for a