I am super grateful I was able to have the opportunity to race a track world cup! And everyone tells me Manchester is the coolest of the them all, so I experienced the best of it! I raced in the scratch race and points race, and here is a recap of my first world cup experience:


Scratch Race

Shelley Olds, Cari Higgins, and myself were signed up for the scratch race. Shelley and I were in the first heat and Cari in the second. We all qualified safely to the final and got ourselves pumped up as we had a very high chance of winning. Olaberria of Spain made the initial attack solo and I chased her down. Once we got swallowed back into the field there was a strong move with 6 riders and Shelley was in it. That group eventually ended up lapping the field. Cari took the front of the pack and brought back a couple of danglers that also wanted to lap, but couldnt. Then it was all about positioning Shelley for the sprint. But I couldnt find my twin 5 foot assasin until the last lap. But it was too late by then to set something up so it was all about following wheels by then. Within the 6 riders that lapped the field, Shelley placed 3rd which gave her the BRONZE medal of the race. I finished up in 13th in my first world cup! And after putting in a lot of hard work Cari finished last, but was definitely not sad about it because her work paid off.


Points Race

Well talk about experience...I didnt score in the first 2 sprints, so I had to score something on the 3rd. But as I start setting up for the sprint, a Hong Kong chick crashes at the top of the track and starts sliding down and I am a little about the pole lane. I could see it coming...but I had faith that I would make it through and miss her. When we were parallel, she was about a foot above me, all I needed was my rear wheel to clear, but NOPE! On her way down, the Hong Kong chick hits my rear wheel, my rear Dugast tubular from Euro-Asia Imports rolls off of my Zipp 808 and I go sliding down the track with her. I dont remember if anyone else hit us or went down though. I was laying on the apron thinking, "Ughhh, WTF..." The medical peeps took off my helmet and Jim Miller and James Stanfill are running towards me. I unclipped and kicked my bike away. Then the adrenalin started pumping through my veins and I jumped up, checked to make sure I didnt break anything and was shaking everything off and trying to get back into reality while James and Jim changed my rear wheel. While they were changing my wheel, Daniel Holloway yelled at me to take a deep breath :). I got back into the race on the sprint lap and missed the 4th sprint, so it was all down the last sprint, I had to get points. I think the adrenalin wore off and I started to feel the pain from the crash and finished in 6th on the last sprint and didn't qualify for the final. Surprisingly I only got a pretty big bruise on my hip, whiplash, and a small burn on my shoulder, the size of a dime maybe. No holes in my skinsuit, burned up some handle bar tape, rolled a Dugast tubular, and burned a couple holes in my Oakley gloves. Not bad for a midget.



I'd say I soaked up alot from my first world cup experience. I got into the scratch final and even crashed :), a part of both ends.




Me racing in the scratch race final.


Shelley Olds on the scratch race podium.


Des Dickie and I, Des is the coolest person ever!


Ben Sharp doin' werk!




Thanks for reading!!!
CJR