Madison was well-represented by Scott, Kelly, Frank, Zack, Jon, and myself. We brought along Kelly's bike so she could get a chance to ride on the track and see what she thought, and was actually talked into doing a couple of races. She raced with the messenger women due to the fact that she actually does transport stuff by bicycle as an aspect of her job, and she did great. Once she gets a little race experience she'll be a force to be reckoned with.
The rest of us raced with the non-messengers. It was fun to get to race with my Madison pals and my pals/rivals from Chicago and Milwaukee. Zack made a strong move with a lap to go in an early match sprint, and I followed it and came around him to claim the first two spots for Madison. I think Frank found himself boxed in with bad positioning early on in one of his races, so would later take a flyer for a few laps to try an alternate strategy. The track is fun because your racing tactics and experience from the road still apply, but there's still a whole other set of skills and strategy to learn.
I wasn't feeling particularly strong at any point, which I guess is normal for me, but the knee had subsided to a dull ache and I felt like I could get some power to the pedals for once. Phil's Trek T1 was once again perfect. Stiff and smooth. Winning my match sprint heat, semi, and the final, I basically stuck to the same plan throughout. Stay in front, even if it meant pulling the pack, because nobody got the jump on me and my last-lap acceleration was good enough to stay there.
Later was the miss and out. I had never done one before and was worried about getting pinched off the back by not paying attention, but managed to stay in front until the final selection, and come around for the win. I'm not sure if this was one of the races or not, but I confounded Simon several times at what, for him, would be inopportune moments.
Somewhere in there (my memory is foggy already) was a scratch race. What was interesting is that although there were probably several riders in the bunch who could have made a break work, there was no attacking and I was happy to sit on the front until the end.
Last was some variation of a points/tempo race. Points given every 3 or so laps. Feeling fatigued and weird from too much sun, I was thankful the day was almost over. After the first sprint for points it was Ted Burger and I holding a gap on the field and trading half-lap pulls. I knew him to be a strong rider from the Tour and other various races, but on the bell laps I was able to come around him for the points. I think Scott's war horn, made famous by its appearance at the WI state cross championships in Sun Praire last year, gave me the extra drive I needed.
I'm really happy with how the day went, and I'm excited to get a track bike built up for myself and do this more often. I won a Crumpler bag, Kelly got a sweet multi-tool, and we had a great time with a ton of awesome people. Jonny made an awesome stem (presented to Squid), and Jason contributed a sweet hammerhead paintjob.
Full results:
Messenger Male
1. Andrew Nordyke, CHI
2. Jeff Perkins, CHI
3. (tie) Brean Shea, CHI / James Lalonde, MKE
5. Al Urbanski, CHI
Messenger Female
1. Jen Greenberg, CHI
2. Anzie Nelson, CHI
3. Kelly Petersen, Madison
Non-messenger Male
1. Lyle Hanson, Madison
2. Ted Burger, CHI
3. Henry Loud, CHI
4. Simon May, CHI
5. (tie) TJ Kells, MKE / Ben Van Couvering, CHI
Non-messenger Female
1. Val Brostrom, CHI
2. Katy Steudel, MKE
3. Michelle Davis, CHI
4. Emily Willobee, CHI
Stay tuned for a report of Sunday's road race in Whitewater.
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