Getting tired...

Tonight is short and sweet since it's an early morning tomorrow.

Two highlights of the night.

1) The American crew!  Imagine that, 4 Americans at the Rotterdam 6-day.  John, on the left, is my host here in Holland.  Without him, this whole trip would be close to impossible.  As an Amsterdam local, he has helped most Americans who come over here to race.  Jason, on the right, is my friend from Minnesota and he is working on a really exciting project for me.  If I would "help him, help me" we would have it finished soon.  Lisa, on the right, is Jason's wife.  They have moved to Belgium for the month and watching all kinds of fun bike racing on the weekends!

A little video of the velodrome before all the doors open.  Notice all the bars and dining options in the infield.

2) The second highlight of the night was that I won the Scratch race!  See, I told you I would win one :)

In the Elimination race, I found myself playing the devil again.  It is SOOO much fun to do on this track.  But, it is also very tiring.  I ended 7th and simply because I had no more legs to play the devil.  A couple times I would sprint and then quickly go to the black line in the back for recovery but as it ended up the girl in front of me was eliminated so she would stop pedaling.  Ahh!  My fault for playing the game that way but it was a lot of extra energy as I would get gapped off the back.  Next time I will play some and then tuck in the front a little some too.

In the Points race, my goal was to be involved in more sprints.  The past couple nights I have done well by "going big."  In other words, I put a big effort into winning a sprint here and there and then recovering.  Well, I wanted to be involved in all the sprints tonight if even for less points each time.  I need to work on moving in the bunch in the sprint.... which is scary as hell on this track!  So, I was involved in 4 out of the 5 sprints but only ended in 5th or 6th place.  I am not sure.

I think I ended up 2nd overall tonight.  So, clearly, I am figuring out the gears and the track.  Now, the legs are starting to get tired.  I remember though... all the girls are getting tired.  So, here's to more victories over the next 3 days!

Good night.  Early morning!