Monday is done and we are into Tuesday the official start of the Champs. Last night after the track was closed there was an opening ceremony which we stayed for. I missed it last year at worlds in Sydney so I thought we should see what it was all about. There was a podium full of junior Portugal riders and then kids carrying flags for all the countries represented. Then there was a lot of speeches in Portugese and then a big local group of singers and guitar and according players to entertain us. That done we were served wine and appetizers. Long but kind of small town fun. Back to the hotel and dinner with Kevin and Kim and off to bed early. I wanted to be at the track right away, it was a supposed to open at 8, so I planned to get up at 6. I made it up and grabbed so snacks and impromptu breakfast to keep me fueled for the morning. Off to the track, stopping by another hotel to pick up a new friend name Chris, of course, from Canada who we met during Monday. We were first at the track but the doors were in fact not open so we sat in the car and talked. At little before 8 they were open so race day begins. Normal warm up but they closed the track 10 minutes before 9 so I barely got a warm up lap in race gear at full speed. I need to remember that for the next warm up session. I was a in the second race, 6th heat starting on the home straight. Bike and helmet check passed, no computer even in the revised back of the top tube position, roller warm ups and then up the ramp to wait for my start. There wasn’t any prior gate practice so here we go. In the gate, count down form 50 seconds, 5,4,3,2,1 go bang, bang the other side gate didn’t open. I stopped after 10-15 meters, rolled around and got back to the gate and made sure it wasn’t my false start. Here we go again, this time we are off but I didn’t realized I didn’t have a competitor on the track with me. The effort felt good but there is a lot of echo in the space so you can’t hear times. Eventually they published them, 40.97 my fastest time ever but only good for 12th out of 19. Fastest time was 36.9?, like I said before fast track. Roller time and pack up for the afternoon off and some real food/lunch.
That’s it for now, more pictures later.