Bloomer Park

I spent last Friday in Bloomer Park, Rochester Hills, Michigan. In the afternoon, a few of us did some team-pursuit training. In the evening, racing started. There was a Canadian invasion with 4 teams coming from FCV, and I was partnered with Jason King, of Oakville. This was the third of their Friday night Madison series.

The racing started with a one-mile scratch race for each partner, then a 50 lap Madison, then a miss-and-out with everyone, and finally a 100 lap Madison.

Jason King did the first scratch race, attacking a bit too early and getting swallowed up by the pack with about half of a lap to go. I won my scratch with an attack over the top with one lap to go.
In the Madison, we played it conservatively, and that didn't pay off. Team Euro (Daniele DeFranceschi, Windsor, and Nick Console, Rochester, MI) took a lap.
In the miss-and-out, I was eliminated early when I got boxed in the sprinter's lane. Jason King, however, raced extremely well and came second to Daniele.
Going into the final Madison, we were in a solid second place. We ended up going for all the sprints, knowing that team Euro wasn't going to let us take a lap.

Final standings had us in second place with 88 points and Team Euro in first place with 99 points.

My next big race is the International 3-Day (http://www.nas-track.com/velodrome/pages/vabp-raceevents.htm#nt3day) in Bloomer, where I will be racing with Daniele.

Good luck to Trek-Store riders at CHIN tomorrow, and happy Canada Day!

K-Dub

Before the race, I was a bit anxious about doing that climb 28 times, but to my surprise the pace wasn't too bad. For most of the race, I was either on the back, sitting in, or on the front, covering moves, and praying for them not to stick. With about 5 laps to go, the peloton split, with about 10 riders in each group and 3 riders off the front. At 4 to go, a prime $35 prime was announced. Being the broke student/cyclist that I am, I decided that might be a nice time to go off the front. Within a couple of kilometers, I couldn't see the peloton. With 3 laps to go, I had my own follow car. I knew then that the last 20 km of that race were going to hurt. I ended up staying off the front, and finishing in fourth place. This was my best result on the road yet.

My next race is tomorrow. I will be racing Madison in Detroit. Let track season begin!