My first ever track race. In a field almost national standard. This is going to be interesting.
I’d ridden the velodrome before, but only club clusters, and stopped in April 2017. Now I started again, and since October this was going to be my first race. When I heard that there were 72 people entered I knew there were going to be heats, one race would be a pandemonium. I arrived at Newport apprehensive but also looking forward to a race in which there was no pressure at all.
The first race was a scratch race, a nice gentle start where all I had to think about was my position at the end of the final lap. The race wasn’t very fast, and as it was only 5 km that meant a full bunch sprint at the end. The positioning was tough for me, working out when to be at the front and what part of the bunch to be at. I pulled of the front with 3 laps to go, looking back this was a big mistake. I couldn’t get back into the line, and ended up finishing 16th out of 24. For a first race, I was pretty pleased.
The next race was a points race, where points were given to the first 4 riders over the line every 8 laps. I just needed a point to get a good result, but that was an extremely tough task. I managed to get myself into reasonable positions for the first few sprints, but was unable to get any points. My dad says that there was a moment where I could have followed another rider who was attacking, but I didn’t see the move in time. I finished 14th in the final sprint and 15th in the race, improvement!
The final race was an elimination race. This race was extremely tactical, and my race ended quickly after a poor judgement. After the sprint, I was at the top of the track to avoid getting eliminated. I should have sprinted forwards to get to the front, but I didn’t and was eliminated on the third lap. This meant that I cam 20th. I was really disappointed with this ride, though I now know what not to do in an elimination and how to improve on my result next time.
Overall, I think that the race went well. While I did make a few mistakes, that was always going to happen, and I now know what to improve on before the next race. My favourite race so far was the points race, it had more to it than just a basic scratch race. Next circuit race will be at Pembrey in February, until then I’ll be training at home and at Newport.