Belated track reports (from last Tuesday at Kenosha and Thursday at Blaine)
From: Dan Schueller
Date: Jul 26, 2007 9:52 AM
Last Tuesday, July 17 I raced for the first time on a non-Blaine track
in Kenosha on a humid night after visiting my daughter Tania in Chicago.
I did 3 races. The first race with 15 Cat 3 riders was fast but
uneventful and I took 4th in the field sprint.
The second race, a Masters 30+ 20-lap scratch race with all categories,
was one I really wanted to place well in, but it turned out to be my
worst race. It was a big group of 28 riders and I got boxed in for the
first couple laps while four guys broke away and got half a lap. Once I
saw daylight, I broke to catch the leaders and rode several laps alone
gaining on them. When I got real close (about 20 yards away) I ran out
of gas and quit gaining ground. So I looked back to see the pack still
a half lap down but I also noticed a rider on my wheel who I pulled the
whole way up. Thinking he could pull the last 20 yards, I pulled up
track to let him through. But he then just put on a sprint to close the
gap, leaving me in the dust. The announcer made a comment on my strong
effort to bridge and the cheap shot delivered by this rider who happened
to be his nephew. I then rode the rest of the race as hard as I could
trying to hold off the pack, but they caught me with one lap to go and I
finished mid pack.
The third race, a 20-lap points race with four sprints (for 5, 3, 2, 1
points every 5 laps) and 15 riders was the most fun. The first sprint I
took 5th for no points, the second sprint I took 3rd for 2 points, the
3rd sprint I took 2nd for 3 points and 3 laps before the last sprint I
broke away with two others and then outsprinted them to win 5 points,
taking 2nd overall:
Category 3,4,5 20-lap Points Race
1 Al Urbanski - 13 pts. - Team XXX
2 Dan Schueller -10 pts - Gopher Wheelmen
3 Andrew Toumanoff -7 pts - Pegasus
4 Jeff Brodick -6 pts - Hayes Brake
5 Bob Schallhorn -5 pts - Beans & Barley
6 Zack Alderks -2 pts - Kittles
7 Art Hicks -1 pt - Beans & Barley
8 Andy Leslie Kenosha Velosport
9 Ben Fietz XXX
It was really fun to race on a different track with unknown riders. I
thought they were pretty equal in ability to riders at our track. The
main difference was that they had a lot of junior riders (2 separate
fields of them) and only 2 women riders, compared to Blaine where we
have no junior races and a good women’s field.
At last Thursday’s Blaine races I placed 5th in the Cat 3 Omnium. The
first race I broke away with four staying on my wheel, then I finished
5th after all four came around me on the last lap. The second race, a
miss & out, I made it to the final two by riding the whole race near the
front on the blue line (a strategy I found works well for this race).
Then on the last lap I was high on the first turn when I got caught
looking over my right shoulder for Lionel Space who surprised me and
sprinted down track to my left to win it. In the last race, a 50-lap
points race, I finished 5th after only getting one point before the
final sprint where I took 3rd for 2 points.
Sadly, it looks like tonight’s track races may get rained out, but I’m
looking forward to Saturday’s Masters State Track Championships.