Louise Haston got her Season off to a flying start, with an Omnium at the Spring Track Meeting in Dundee …
My training had gone well over the Winter, with my only set back being a two month period of horrific headaches that pretty much left me unable to train at times. Apart from that though, when I was able to train, I managed to put in some decent sessions, so knew I hadn’t lost much fitness.
Anyway, my first outing was the Women’s Omnium in Dundee, it was a good leg opener and useful to see where I was fitness wise. The first event was the 400m Time Trial. Here I had a quick reminder about the practicalities of racing and sadly overlooked my choice of wheel. For this particular event and on this particular occasion, I sellected the wrong one. I have definitely learned that just because you feel your bike looks amazing, it will not necessarily achieve the best results and that the weather should always be a more important factor in deciding which wheel to use. On this particular occasion, at Dundee, the 900mm deep section front, was a very a bad move. The clues were all there, if I had chosen to pay attention to them. The trees were almost bending in half and when I came out of turn three, a big gust of wind came underneath me and just about sent me into space! Despite this slight error, I still finished 2nd fastest.
Next up was the scratch race. I wasn’t looking forward to this event, as I hadn’t done much endurance, however I surprised myself and actually felt OK. I even attacked off the front a few times and managed to finish 3rd.
The third event was the keirin, which is my favourite. I had to win this event, which I happily did. At this point, we were thinking how lucky we were that it hadn’t rained yet – it pretty much rains 24/7 in Dundee – but I had spoken too soon. It was my turn for the pursuit and just as I was waiting on the start line, it started to rain very heavily!
Subsequently, the racing was put on hold, so that the track could dry out. A few of the girls had managed to get the pursuit in before the rain started, but there were still two heats to go and we had to wait about an hour before we got to race. So after warning up again, it was time to go and this time I punctured with one lap to go. I had just enough time to change to my training wheels and then I was off again. I finished second in the pursuit, which I was really happy with considering what had gone wrong.
Last but not least was the points race, which I knew was going to be a tough one. I hung in there and managed second or third, which gave me second overall in the omnium. Overall, I was very happy with how I went and I’m looking forward to the next one.
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