While in YouTube I re-watched both the men's and women's 2012 London Olympic Points Race. Sadly, that's 75K and 10K views respectively as compared to 180M. Thankfully, we can learn a LOT more when we watch the Olympic points races!
10,000 to 180,000,000! Our sport is either incredibly small, or cyclist don't understand just how much they can learn from these videos.
For me, the most exciting bits of a points race is that you are thinking the entire time. Observing, judging, calculating, positioning, gambling, reacting, initiating, lighting it up, or recovering before the next explosive effort. You're breathing through every pore in your body, yet asking the blood pumping through your body to drive your speed -and- help your brain process a bunch of information that comes at you so very quickly. That's the beauty of this bike racing discipline. At first is can seem confusing because riders are all over the track, but the event is absolutely beautiful if you are catching the nuances of the race. There's riders in over their head, and opening gaps. There's riders that are strong, but not picking up points. And, there are even a few riders taking a full lap on their competitors to rack up an extra 20 points. Most points wins! In three weeks I get to compete in the points race at the UCI masters world championship. I'll keep studying the videos, practicing my instinctiveness and hope for the best.
So, what's the next video you'll watch?
Women's 2012 Olympic Points Race - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7evNInPvaE
Men's 2012 Olympic Points Race - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy3a9ivesQ0
Larry Nolan, Team Specialized Juniors Director
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