So Apparently the Brits are Pretty Good

Saturday meant three more finals for track cycling, and nine more medals to give out. The individual pursuit, the men's keirin, and the men's point race all ran on Saturday. The points race is for the endurance riders and the keirin is very much a sprinter's game, so the pursuit falls somewhere in the middle.

Taylor Phinney, the big story back in the states for his parents and for his own cycling potential, ended up finishing in the bottom half of the first round. He raced a good enough time in qualifying to get him into Saturday's runoffs, but he couldn't beat the New Zealander he raced against who would eventually race for gold and get silver. Afterward, he seemed very upbeat about the situation, happy with his performance and the comforting knowledge that he'll be back in four years in London.

The only annoying part about working in the velodrome is that most journalists couldn't care less about his race and want to talk to him about how much he's been talking to the women's gymnastics team. Since I only want quotes about cycling, that means I have to get my own questions, which ticks off the journalists to no end. I swear these guys look at us like we're bugs running around their feet. Considering we're doing their work for them a lot of the time, you think their egos would deflate a little. I was wrong.

So for the second day of track cycling competition, the British took home five more medals. Chris Hoy, part of the Brits gold medal team sprint team, won another gold in the keirin. I'm happy to say that this blog's new fan favorite, Malaysian rider Josiah Ng, made it into the second round of qualifying, but couldn't beat out a stacked heat of Hoy, Australian Shane Kelly and Frenchman Arnaud Tournant for the finals. Brit Ross Edgar took silver in the keirin, while fellow Brit Chris Newton took bronze in the point race.

The point race is still a mystery to most of us, considering that the race is 160 laps long and you earn points by placing well in the sprints that run every 10 laps. I still have no idea how the points are allotted, so I'm no help there. Watching it can be fun though, because there is one guy that his entire job is to spin in a circle and point at the leader of the race, because the leader isn't necessarily the guy at the front of the pack because guys get lapped. Like a lot of Olympic sports like Judo and others, the rules aren't as important as just enjoying the race.