Track Cycling Wednesday Night Racing
This week we feature another update by our good friend Hyun on his progress on the Wednesday Night Racing at Jerry Baker Memorial Velodrome in Redmond, Washington.
NOTE: I Just got an update from the Peak Baggers who are summiting Mt. Rainier this weekend with some amazing photos. Check back soon for their post!
In Hyun’s words: Initially I was a little unsure about the schedule for Wednesday Night Racing on June 12th. The schedule entailed:
- JB Tempo which means points are up every lap with first across the line getting two points and second getting one point.
- Devil’s scratch. It starts as an elimination where the last person across the line every lap is eliminated. The number if elimination laps was based on half the riders in the field. Once the last rider is pulled, there are five more laps of a pure scratch race.
- 4×5 Points race which means four sprints every five laps.
The races all looked a little long for this sprinter’s taste but I thought what the heck, I then looked at my rear wheel. The valve core had torn off at the valve. The valve core is the removable part of a presta valve that allows you to inflate the tire. I tried to remove it because a friend kindly had a spare. It seemed stuck. I then went into panic mode looking for needle nose pliers to pull it out to no avail. My teammate than kindly offered me a spare rear wheel that saved my night.
Hyun performs emergency repair on his rear wheel.
Thanks to that shot of adrenalin from scrambling to get my bike up and running, my ‘so so attitude’ changed to ‘I’m gonna put up a fight in every race’ because why the heck not?!
The JB tempo I started aggressively and got in the mix for sprints, getting a bunch of seconds until I blew up and got dropped from the leaders. I still had enough points for third. The racing photos below are from Danilo Cinacchi’s site: Wednesday Night Racing June 12, 2024 @ Velodrome – Dan Photo Sports (smugmug.com)
Hyun out front…
The Devil’s scratch was a tough one. I knew there would only be five elimination laps which would be pretty fast in any case. I stayed near the front to avoid the surges at the back and kept mental count of each lap. The way this race played out every lap it would string out and then riders would fan out across the line to make sure their rear wheel wasn’t the last across the line.
Hyun mapping out his strategy in the pack…
Once we got to five, I prayed nobody would attack early because I was pretty red lined. I saw one rider setting himself high on the bankment so I placed myself diagonally beneath him to cut off his line of attack. With one lap to go a rider went and gapped me. I chased pretty hard and hung on for second.
Race data from Hyun’s power monitoring app
The dark blue line indicates speed and the light blue line indicates power. It clearly shows how the speed was faster during the elimination laps, and then slowed down during the five intermediate laps with a sharp spike at the finish. This is where data is helpful to look at after a race.
The last night of the race was the 4×5 points race. This would be the tough one for me because I
was getting tired. I went for the first two sprints at 16 to go and at 11 to go. I scored a few points. Then two of the stronger riders attacked and I just couldn’t accelerate that one last time. This is when bike racing feels less like bicycling than the final reps in a leg press session in the gym. It then became a question of whether I could hang on and get a couple more points to hang on for third for the night. I ended up getting fourth in this race but that was just barely enough to get me third for the omnium that night.
Hyun places 3rd for the omnium on Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Lesson from the night. As Jason Nesmith said in Galaxy Quest, “Never give up! Never Surrender!”
Thank you Hyun for another great write up and congratulations on your early success in the season! We all at The Mountain Exp and our community are truly inspired by your amazing resiliency and ability to compete at a high level. We look forward to following you all year and beyond!!!