Today I was probably the laziest bike racer ever. Our first race was my super favorite, the Point a Lap, where you get to work really hard to probably NOT win a point if a really good sprinter is behind you. Basically, I just followed wheels with some girls and ended up off the front in a small group. The one time I actually ended up in the lead of our group I thought I might actually get a point, Jen F. came up next to me and was obviously going to make me work for it. I think I actually started to pedal slower, I really didn't care. Seriously, was this even a race for me? I think not, kind of pathetic. I just wanted to get it over with. Next!
My second super favorite race, the Progressive Points. Lap 1=1 point, Lap 2=2 points and so on until the race is over at 10 laps and 10 points. My only strategy against good sprinters in this race is to get off the front and stay there. Well, that was not going to happen. I went with Fiona when she attacked on lap 1 and I got 2 meager points without having to work too hard. The field seemed to split and I just kind of zoned out for about 4 laps until Jen F. took off and won laps 7,8 and 9. We then worked to get he back and on the last lap my super teammate Andrea launched a huge flyer and caught Jen before turn 4. She won the lap and 10 points for us. I love Andrea, thanks for making my life easy.
The Madison. Wow it was hot and the thought of doing a 20 minute Madison was excruciating. We had a good start and good exchanges. I somehow lucked out and ended up being in for all the sprints, when we get better we can plan on rotating the sprints between us. The first sprint I came in 3rd, won the second sprint and got 2nd in the third sprint. It was a good race, I really did think I was going to die about half way through. Kudos to Darien who rode her teams Madison ironwoman style (by herself). You are my hero. Here's a cool video David Hart took of our Madison.
Results? The big suprise for us was that we won the daily points placing. During the Six Day you can place according to your daily points and laps (kind of like a stage win in a stage race) those points and laps all go into the tally for the overall win (kind of like the GC). Up until today Miranda and Jen had creamed us in points on a daily basis, so we were always in 2nd or 3rd for the daily points. We were so elated when we found out we had won for the day. We also kept our 2nd place overall. Here's our podium shots courtesy of David.
On the podium in 1st for the day
Congrats to everyone. If you look closely you can see the big loopy bows we wore in our hair. For the past three days we kept adding ribbons, so they were pretty obnoxious by today.
Final podium shot. Thanks to all the ladies who came out to make it a great week of racing. See you next year!
