Saturday, November 17, 2007

3 Jours d'Geneve: Day 2 Wrap, or Think Like A Monkey

Racing really came around for me today, and I think I know why. Adrian passed on a bit of sage advice before my points race. To summarize: Think like a monkey. Don't take any shit, be the one to throw it. Not only is the mental image priceless, but it seems pretty apt as well.

Day 2 finished out strong with the madison. Things blew apart early. The race was only 15 km long, so it was full-on from the gun. The first attack came from Jackie only a few laps into the race, and there wasn't a real pack again until about the halfway point. Even then, it only lasted maybe 10 laps before it all splintered again.

Things got so messy that I honestly don't know what happened, except that we picked up third place in the second sprint (of 3) and won the finish. We took a bunch of laps on a lot of the teams, and from what I can tell, only one team took a lap on us. As it turns out, we lost two laps to the leaders, and 3 teams when up laps on us. It was a surprise to me. The funny thing is that there is one team that finished behind us on points, but equal on laps that I am certain we lapped more than once. Perhaps the exchange rate is coming into play here too.

The final scoring put Adrian and I in fourth for the madison, with Simes and Wiswell right behind us in fifth. On the day, we took fourth, landing in fifth in the overall classification, and Jackie and Dave are just ahead of us in fourth overall.

Tomorrow we have derny racing. Awesome? Wait. No, terrifying is more like it. All I know is that I need a huge gear and to yell either "allez" or "ho" for faster and slower, respectively. Do anyone out there have any more derny racing advice for me?

2 comments:

Ben said...

Yeah, I think derny racing is a hoax. You can probably forget about "allez" and "ho" and just go with the flow. At least among the pros the races' outcomes look completely pre-determined.

I'll be looking forward to seeing your take on this after you've done one.

I hope you get a fat pilot, it'll be just like drafting me in Blaine--you'll feel right at home.

Tenacious T said...

I yelled "ho" at someone I was drafting behind yesterday, and she slapped me.