We started off with eight women; there were three from one team (Becky Quinn, Christen King, Neva Day) and Shelly Olds, Katherine Lundby, Catherine Fiedler, and I. Becky Quinn, was the one who caused my horrific track crash in 2004. We did 64 laps, with sprints every 8 laps. I used a 90 gear (50 x 15). We started off doing a paceline. Then the games started. I was more nervous than I realized once the race began. I didn’t want to be really close to anyone.
Poor Uhl was trying to yell instructions to me, and I could tell he was REALLY frustrated watching me race. To tell you how bad it was, he was saying things like, “Get on that wheel,” “When they swing uptrack you swing uptrack,” “Higher” (everyone was higher than I was…they were really uptrack and I was on the blue line), “Look before you move,” “Pay attention to what’s going on around you.” The first part of the race something would go and I would hesitate, so I would chase and catch back on. I was definitely not in a draft very often.
The first sprint was a mass sprint won by Becky, and I had nothing to do with it. The second sprint Neva Day took off early and held it to the line, but there was a group sprint for the other points won by Becky, then Shelly, again I was nowhere around. The third sprint Catherine Fiedler took off early and won it followed by Shelly and Becky, again I was not in contention. The fourth sprint I took off really early and was off for several laps and was nipped at the line by Catherine to get 2nd in that sprint. I tried to keep going after the sprint, but everyone was right there. Neva and Catherine sat up once they crossed the line for points. The fifth sprint Katherine Lundby won and I got no points. The sixth sprint Christen King set tempo on the front and held it to the line for the win, but I wasn’t there again.
They slowed down after that sprint, and I attacked with 14 laps to go. I opened up a good gap. My intent was to try and lap the field, but with a team of three, there was no way they were letting that happen. I won the seventh sprint and held it to win the final sprint. Those points put me in 3rd place. Becky Quinn won (18 pts) with Catherine 2nd (15 pts), me 3rd (13 pts) and Shelly 4th (12 pts). It is so fun to be off by yourself. All of a sudden you have tons of supporters. Uhl was happy when I was off by myself. Then he yelled things like, “Stay low” and “Bend your elbows and relax”, and “Keep pushing it.” Several people congratulated me on the ride afterwards. While I was off Roger Young (Manager of the velodrome and MC for the event) talked about how I can get off and stay off. He would know since he ran the PowerBar team from 1996-98.