World Master track Champs 09

Its been over year since I posted anything and heaps had happened since too. Marriage, new job, new house. Haven't been coaching but been really enjoying my own riding.
Just got back from competingat the World Masters track Cycling Championships is Sydney 2 weeks ago. Rode the kilo and scratch races and while didn't break any records I was pretty happy with my performance. My buildup was rubbish. Sickness and a niggling injury (not to mention general laziness and crappy weather) kept me from following any problem on the bike. So i sufficed with a gym session each week, Keren's RPM class on Tuesday nights and biking to work when it wasn't pissing down. Oh and I had one session in Wanganui behind a motor bike for 5 efforts of 5 laps each. That was it.
So we arrived in sydney without any huge expectations and had a ball. First thing I discovered was that I'd forgotten my seat and seatpost. Bugger. Mike (or Mark) the local mechanic soldme one though and I was sorted. I had to employ Mike's help again to make my aero bars UCI friendly with his hacksaw. From there on I was good to go. I'd decided to ride a 96" gear in the kilo based on the dozen or so laps I had to ride around the velodrome earlier in the day. In hindsight I probably could've pushed a 98 but the 96 was ok and I got well on top of it and stayed there for all four laps. My start wasn't so good - I'd had a red bull and was pretty hyped up and went to early only to have the start gate hold me back. Crap. Anyway a 21.2sec first lap turned into 37sec 500 so the first half wasn't particularly eather shattering (I've done a 37 sec 500 in the crater that is Hataitai velodrome). Any I got through 750 in 53.6 then stopped the clock at 1:11.269. Not too shabby and I was feeling pretty good considering I'd just done a kilo.
Then there was te scratch race which had 2 heats of 5km (20 laps) with 12 riders from each making the final (about half the field). During the early part of the race a South African rider was annoying me so I went round him and quickly found myself out the front of the pack - not where I wanted to be really. Anyway I eased slightly and tucked in at the front but by the end all the Australians thought they'd box the guy in the black suit in and I was squeezed out to 15th place. So missed the final which was annoying but I was happy that the high speeds of the scratch were no trouble at all. I was feeling very comfortable spinning teh 98 in that ride.
Anyway thats set me up with some motivation for the coming track season in NZ and a few personal goals to work towards.