Thursday, June 19, 2008

Ault Park #3 (A race)

What a beautiful night to race bikes! Cool temps (which meant I got to where my long sleeve skinsuit) and fast racing were on order for the night. With Chip and Brett by my side, we started the race with the same plan as always, go for the sprints when you feel good enough and help each other out whenever possible. I can't even remember at this point which sprints I tried to contest, but managed a 3rd or 4th on a non-double lap. After the 10 laps to go sprint (which I did not contest), I found myself near the front and passing everyone and then having a pretty good gap. I looked back a few times and then thought, what the heck! So I put my head down and the gap started growing. After a few laps by myself, a Turner rider (Neal?) bridged up to me to help the effort. So on the 5 laps to go sprint, I was able to come across the line first. We then continued to work to try to stay away, but I knew there was no way Huntington was going to allow us to stay away and steal those precious double points for the final sprint. Sure enough, with 2 to go, we were caught. I tried to jump on the right wheels to position for the sprint. I managed to get onto Eric's wheel initially, but by the time we rounded the final turn, I was maybe sitting eigth wheel and just didn't have the legs to contest.
It was a fun night of racing and having my family there to watch Daddy "winning" the race for a few laps ;) Brett did a great job in his first A race and even tried to get me to the front early on, but blew a tire right after I got on his wheel. He grabbed a new wheel and remained in the fight til the end. Chip was steady eddie and tried to do some blocking while I was out front. Thanks guys, I totally appreciate your sacrifices!