The season normally starts in February of each year, but the
UCI (cycling's governing world body) is trying to make track
cycling a winter sport but still keep it a Summer Olympic.  The
first World Cup of the 2005 season officially started in early
November 2004 in Moscow, Russia with the with the other three
being held in Los Angeles - December, Manchester - January,
and Sydney - February.  The World Championships will be
taking place March 23 - 27 back in Los Angeles.

There also has been a bit of a rule change in the Match Sprints.  If you remember back to the Olympics when I was racing, the 1/8th Finals was a "one shot" ride -- if you won you advanced to the 1/4 Finals; if you lost you went into the "Repechage" round (the losers round) where you must win to return back into the sprinting again.  If you lost the Repechage round then you were finished and would have to compete for 9th through 12 position.  The UCI wants to speed up things so now with the 1/8th and 1/4 Final rounds you must win each heat to stay in the game.  This means that if you lose the 1/8th Final you are done sprinting.  If you win the 1/8th Final you advance to the 1/4 Final, but if you lose the 1/4 Final (it's a "one shot" ride now too) you are finished and will be left to compete for 5th through 8th place.  Not like adding a wee bit more pressure, eh? 

Now onto the L.A. World Cup and what transpired over Friday and Saturday!

Qualification in the Flying 200Metre went very well and was pleased with my time of 11.652sec. which put me in 4th position.  In the 1/8 Finals I was up against Hungary's Szilvia Szabolcsi and won this heat.  It was back to the track for an 18h00 start time for the 1/4 Final where I went up against Italy's E. Frisoni.  She had some good speed going into the last lap and a quarter and took the win.  That meant that I'd be vying for 5th through 8th spot.  Of course I was a bit disappointed that I didn't advance into the Semi-Final because my objective had been to medal so I shifted my focus to doing the best that I could in this next round.  Yvonne Hijgenaar (NED), Clara Sanchez (FRA), and Victoria Pendleton (GBR) were all in heat.  I had drawn third position and when the Commissaire had received the okay from each of us riders the whistle was blown to signal the start of our race.  The pace is automatically higher and faster when it's a "four-up" (four riders on the track), so I jumped at the chance of taking control of the race in first position.  I was watching everyone's position, ready for any move they were going to make:  Yvonne was right behind me with her front wheel parallel to my rear wheel, Clara behind me in the Pole, and Victoria dangling off of the back.  Each half lap the pace was getting a bit faster than the last, when all of a sudden Yvonne launched an attack out of the saddle to overtake me but I matched her and held her off on my hip.  I knew Victoria was going to try and make a move to come flying past us, and I knew that if I rode over the red line of the Pole that there was a really good chance that Clara would try and sneak her way through to the front.