WATT Bike League 2009

It’s that time of year when the dark nights force us all to look for indoors activity rather than braving the wet mucky roads. I missed the first two WATT Bike league events this year recovering from niggly injuries but Friday night saw me at Lichfield Leisure Centre to compete. For more info on the league see this post from last year.
As it was my first appearance this year I was placed in division 2, and showed this was probably a good decision by coming last in the first race – a 500m sprint, my foot coming out of the pedal. There then followed a course de primes where consecutive 300 sprints are raced for points plus a final 400m sprint to the line. A team sprint was next where my team crashed and burned but next was my ‘favourite’ event the distance scratch race.
Being in div 2 this was run over 3000m. I decided to keep at 115 rpm and stay in touch with the leader. With 800m to go I was just in the lead so let rip up to 125rpm and pulled ahead. In hindsight although I won by 5 secs or so I think it was probably a bit early to sprint for the line and I did feel a bit wobbly walking back to my seat, my heart rate showing the highest since a Watt Bike race last year. My time of 4:01.6 isnt bad though and I can definitely go quicker if I use a higher gear. We finished off with a 500m handicapped sprint and although I hung on to 2nd I need to re-evaluate trying to spin 150rpm for 30 odd seconds and try a high gear.
Full details of the league are here.