Ault Park B #5: end of the series

It was a hurly-burly night in the Bs: very tactical as the riders took a look around, measured their chances, double-checked the points totals, and got ready to defend, attack, or survive. I had decided that #1 & 2 were too far off, so I should focus on keeping #3 overall. That meant watching the two guys behind me, one from 7Hills who seemed to have peaked earlier in the series, and one from UC who was coming on strong. Alex was right behind them, and he was aiming to leapfrog at least one and finish in the trophies. The two of us lined up with Matt and the elusive Bill Hoffman. Bill Lorenz called the top five to the front, teased Alex for being #6, and sent us on our way.

I promptly went out and lost the wheel of the UC kid (Nathan) on the first sprint, which he won to close the gap on me to virtually nothing. For the lap #10 sprint I was more assertive, and took third place for four points, and then did it again for two points at lap #15 (which Alex won in his effort to secure fifth place -- more on that below). So going into lap #20 I had pretty much neutralized Nathan's early gains, and just wanted to watch his wheel and pip him if it looked like he might score.

In a young-guys sticking together move, Charlie (Turner, and the series winner) led Nathan from the top of the hill on lap #20 around to the sprint. I tucked in behind Nathan, and when he stood up to go, I did too. It looked like 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for the sprint were already out of reach, but I wanted to be sure, so I stood up to follow Nathan's wheel, and felt something grab my right leg and knock into my bike. Then I heard the sound of riders and bikes going down. I got held up and missed the sprint. I think Nathan grabbed 4th for 2 points, but it wasn't enough to overtake me in the series.

So I came away with a nice functional 3rd-place trophy (this year they engraved metal insulated water bottles instead of wall plaques), a few bucks, and a tire burn on the outside of my right leg. Alex, who did enough to overcome one of the guys ahead of him (and, we thought, slot into fifth place) got blindsided by Andrew from Team Hungry, who racked up 20 points (!) in last night's race alone to emerge from nowhere (15th) to snag fifth in the series.

I'm pretty happy with the series: I was consistent, and sometimes got better results on night when I felt bleh than when I felt like the king of the world. I hated to see the last sprint of the last lap of the last race in the series end with a crash, and that kind of put a damper on things at the end for me. But if all goes as planned, this was my farewell to the B race, and I'm pleased I was able to put up some results.