Working Mans Madison
After being out of town for a week, this past Tuesday and Wednesday was the Working Man's Madison at the Dick Lane Velodrome. Jason and I teamed up to represent Faster Mustache's race team, while Jim and Justin from FM:Race wore different jerseys and raced as Man Hands. (Each team had to wear different jersey's to avoid confusion in the Madison races.) Read about what a Madison is over on wikipedia.
Photo of Jason and I about to do an exchange in the 50Lap Madison by Jon Woodroof who, as usual, has lots of photos and a broader writeup: here.
The field for The Madison was somewhat ridiculous: 4 super fast A riders, 2 solid B teams, both from FM, and 2 teams consisting of an A rider and a junior rider. The As, particularly Joey and Oscar racing for Mountain Khakis has no problem lapping the entire field and as things got spread out it got pretty tricky to keep track of where the lead group was, and what placing on the sprint laps (every 10 laps, the field is scored 5,3,2,1) ended up being based on who they were passing at the time. Jason and I also both managed to slip and fall, me in the first race and him in the second, and while only minimal blood was lost it meant the racing rider doing an extra lap while the relief rider that had slipped and fallen at 0MPH at the boards had to pick themselves back up and get their acts back together. My fall early in the first race left my shoulder feeling pretty achy, and we had a few hand-sling transitions that we completely blew. Even after that, we ended up 4th place for the night behind the two A teams and Man Hands, 4 laps behind with 10 points. (results)
On wednesday, Neither Jason nor I placed in the first non-madison race, and our 23.81s one-lap madison-exchange time trial placed us in 4th place (with the entire field placing as the same order as the racing on Tuesday). Last up was the main event, a 50-lap Madison. We were feeling pretty good, and the first 19 laps were super solid. Jason pulled ahead on lap 9 and slung me in to seal a first place in the first sprint, and we stayed with the pack until the second sprint when Joey/Oscar turned up the gas and started lapping the field. Everyone got pretty spread out, and while we both rode solidly and had a lot of great exchanges, we were riding solo for most of the rest of the race. The day ended with us 5th overall in the combined standings for the two days, 7 laps behind the lead with 21 total sprint points. (results).
The only team doing any lapping were the two A teams that grabbed 1st and 2nd, and even though no other teams changed positions, we were all 4,6,7 and 9 laps behind due to timing. I'm happy with our 21 sprint points and hopefully enough teams in the future will do the Madison that we can have separate A and B races with a smaller spread of abilities so the final standings aren't as crazy! Next weekend at the track is "The Omnium", see you there!
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Chris Kelly
Photo of Jason and I about to do an exchange in the 50Lap Madison by Jon Woodroof who, as usual, has lots of photos and a broader writeup: here.
The field for The Madison was somewhat ridiculous: 4 super fast A riders, 2 solid B teams, both from FM, and 2 teams consisting of an A rider and a junior rider. The As, particularly Joey and Oscar racing for Mountain Khakis has no problem lapping the entire field and as things got spread out it got pretty tricky to keep track of where the lead group was, and what placing on the sprint laps (every 10 laps, the field is scored 5,3,2,1) ended up being based on who they were passing at the time. Jason and I also both managed to slip and fall, me in the first race and him in the second, and while only minimal blood was lost it meant the racing rider doing an extra lap while the relief rider that had slipped and fallen at 0MPH at the boards had to pick themselves back up and get their acts back together. My fall early in the first race left my shoulder feeling pretty achy, and we had a few hand-sling transitions that we completely blew. Even after that, we ended up 4th place for the night behind the two A teams and Man Hands, 4 laps behind with 10 points. (results)
On wednesday, Neither Jason nor I placed in the first non-madison race, and our 23.81s one-lap madison-exchange time trial placed us in 4th place (with the entire field placing as the same order as the racing on Tuesday). Last up was the main event, a 50-lap Madison. We were feeling pretty good, and the first 19 laps were super solid. Jason pulled ahead on lap 9 and slung me in to seal a first place in the first sprint, and we stayed with the pack until the second sprint when Joey/Oscar turned up the gas and started lapping the field. Everyone got pretty spread out, and while we both rode solidly and had a lot of great exchanges, we were riding solo for most of the rest of the race. The day ended with us 5th overall in the combined standings for the two days, 7 laps behind the lead with 21 total sprint points. (results).
The only team doing any lapping were the two A teams that grabbed 1st and 2nd, and even though no other teams changed positions, we were all 4,6,7 and 9 laps behind due to timing. I'm happy with our 21 sprint points and hopefully enough teams in the future will do the Madison that we can have separate A and B races with a smaller spread of abilities so the final standings aren't as crazy! Next weekend at the track is "The Omnium", see you there!