Playing with fire!

Melbourne Cup on Wheels and Revolution 4
Hisense Arena, Melbourne
Wednesday 17th December

MCOW is the warm up carnival before Revolution at Hisense Arena. And was a good opportunity to get the car legs moving- Matty Meisel-Dennis and I had driven down from Canberra on Tuesday.
Three races in the afternoon session for me- elimination, wheelrace and a scratch race. Knowing that I had tougher races ahead of me in the evening I was probably a little more conservative than I would normally have been. I ended up 4th in both the elimination and scratch race, both times I think as a result of holding back a little, should have given a little more to get a few $ though :) The wheelrace was a bit of a disaster! I am flattered that Peter Tomlinson holds me in such high regard that I got to start of scratch, however with a Malaysian sprinter in front of me with no intention of working together, a big gap to the cover to get to anybody else, plus the front markers close to one another and well organised, Kendelle Hodges and I had nothing and just had to watch the race get away from us! Oh well, you win some, and you don't!

A short break and then it was time to get ready for the evening's fun. Revolution is an entertainment event, it is about putting on a show! And what a show was put on. Apparently there was 5000 spectators! For me and my limited experience, that is huge! The infield was packed with the corporate sponsors having a three course meal at one end and a bar at the other end- not sure that it was the nicest experience for dinner with sweaty smelly bike riders about 1m away dripping sweat as they sat on their rollers! And, with the attraction of seeing Robbie McEwen, Bayden Cooke and Graeme Brown, along with a whole stack of up-and-coming riders, there were a lot of people in the stands as well, in fact the start had to be delayed to get the last of the spectators inside! Needless to say it was a pretty awesome atmosphere!

The elite women's endurance field of about 15 featured Megan Dunn (triple 2008 world junior gold medalist), Belinda Goss, Rochelle Gilmore, Peta Mullens, Tess Downing, Lisa Friend, Jessie McLean, Tiffany Cromwell, Liz Greghouris and me (there were some others, but I don't have the start list). Our two races for the night were both short- 15 lap scratch race and a 30 lap points race (sprints every 5th lap)- and were going to be fast! First up was the scratch race. The start was reasonably routine, everyone rolling through taking their turn, then we got bored and the attacks started. Nothing got away- the race was too short to let anything get away. In the end it came down to a bunch sprint which Megan took out over Tess. Myself, I kind of pedalled out on the last lap and could only manage 8th in the end. Not too unhappy about that though, this was a classy field to be mixing it with.

The points race started around 10pm, just in time for bed!! The pace was still fast as well. The first 2 sprints I was in with the bunch but not far enough towards the front to get any points. Then there was the bit of the race that I was back in the box, I was tired, I was on a bad wheel that I couldn't get around and I was thinking of calling it a night. After a bit of a TTFU conversation with myself, it was decided- I was invited here to race and race I was going to do! Somehow I managed to find some more in me and get on with the bike race! There was 10 laps to go and got back in the main bunch and started following some decent wheels, that made such a difference. Second last sprint, was in a reasonable position to have a go was 5th over the line, damn, not enough for a point! Then we were down to 5 laps to go and the pace stayed on. I managed to time my run at the final sprint pretty well, and just missed out on taking 4th place in that sprint. So whilst I didn't end up with a notable final result, there were a lot of things to take out of this race and a lot of mental toughness developed! Possibly had something to do with racing with flame throwers in the in-field!

We hung around to watch what had been talked up as the event of the night- the men's maddison. And can safely say it didn't disappoint!

This link will take you to the SBS highlights of the MCOW final, won by Josiah Ng of Malaysia. Note the flame throwers in the back-straight :)