Today, another tired Monday, offers a chance to reflect on a long, tough weekend of racing. Ever since I began thinking about realistically taking up bike racing, I dreamed of racing on the track. Two years ago, as a stocky, 210 lb college student, I thought that the banking of a velodrome should be the biggest climb I could ever tackle. A couple year and a successful road season later, I finally made the trek out to Kissena to try out the pista. It was fun, and suddenly I had a new goal: NYS championships. The only catch was that they took place on same weekend as Mengoni. Since Fitchburg, my eyes had been focused on this past weekend as the major landmark race of the last half of my first road racing season. Mengoni was a major goal of mine, as well as pretty much every fast twitch NYC rider as it crowns the defacto Central Park world champion title. So, when the Saturday morning debacle was through rocking my world, I was a bit shaken. I was also short a front wheel (sorry Bob!). I was too mad and distraught to even think about filing a protest or behaving in any way resembling cool composure. There was a silver lining, however. After the very fast, tough Mengoni race, I had 2 hours to refuel and then head out to Queens for my first day at the weekend-long track event. Thanks to my Dad’s zeal for cycling, I was able to get a ride out to the track. I would be racing in the Cat4 field after just upgrading from (track) Cat5 on Wednesday. Our first event on Saturday, the Kilo, would be a new experience for me. I had always loved the Kilo since first watching Chris Hoy smash the world in Athens, completing the sweep of the Commonwealth, World and Olympic titles. I put up my best effort with no ability to gauge my ride. When I returned to the staging area, it seemed that many were impressed by my time. It clearly won the Cat4 title and after watching rider after rider take their turn wound up being the third best time of the day including the 123 field. I missed 2nd overall by less than 1/10th of a second. Based on that result, I actually qualified for elite nationals in the Kilo. The second event was a 20 lap points race. In this race, the full effect of doubling-up on the day was felt. I died a thousand tiny deaths during the ride and could barely turn the pedals over the last two laps. However, I managed to score some points before an endurance-type guy went on a break and wound up third (but got the silver in the state championship since one guy ahead of me is not a NYS resident). On Sunday, the program would be very long, as match sprints required qualifiers, heats, reps, semis and finals. We also had a scratch race and a Keirin. Qualifying for match sprint was a flying 200 meter TT. I wound up qualifying third. After match sprint qualifiers, was the 15 lap scratch race. We were able to pull back an early break away and countered after a prime lap. Four or five of us gained a separation and were able to build a lead over the last 6 or 7 laps by rotating smoothly in a paceline. I took the front with a lap to go, went high on the banking between turns 1 and 2, and dove down to launch my sprint from 300 meters out. I got a gap and held it for gold in the scratch race. Next was the semifinals for match sprints. I was up against a beast of a sprinter, Chris Barbaria. He ended up pipping me by about 4 inches, to send me to the bronze level final. The Keirin was very cool. 5 laps behind a motor scooter, building up to 30 mph, before getting let go on the bell lap. I didn’t get a great position behind the moto from the start, but was able to barely miss the win for second to an MIT rider for second on the photo-finish. In the end, I was able to win the match sprint bronze to secure the overall win in the Cat4 omnium and state omnium championship. By the end, My legs were more depleted than I’ve ever felt. I was a bit sun-toasted from two days sitting out for 5 hours on the infield. Most important, thought, was the satisfaction that I was able to prove something to myself. After the disappointment of Mengoni, qualifying for Nationals in the Kilo was a major lift to my morale. This is especially true since I raced the whole weekend on a noodly entry level steel bike and 36 spoke box-section wheels. With practice in the standing starts and a proper bike and training there is room for improvement. As for the mass start races, I have a long way to go before I can really challenge the track IQ of Cat123 guys.