Night at the Oval 4-15-08

Tonights race we had much warmer weather, and a bigger turn out.  19 racers in all so the split us up into 2 groups. Group A was the 3's and 4's and Group B was the 5's, the Masters and the one woman that showed up.  There was 20-25 mph winds coming out of the south causing the final turn coming back to the start finish line to feel like you were hitting a wall.  First B race was an 8 lap event and we all just kinda rolled into it for the first few laps, then on lap 4 one of the Masters launched an attack, but was quickly caught onto and we remained a single pack, then the next few laps a few more attacks but we all stayed together until the final lap in which one guy went and we all tried to hang onto his wheel, but alas that didn't happen and I ended up in 3rd.  Come to find out he was actually a Cat 4 guy that showed up late and missed the 1st A race, so that was ok. Second B race was another 8 lap race and was pretty easy going for the first 5 laps until I decided to try and attack, had a pretty good gap for about 20 seconds, but they worked together and came back up to me once I hit that headwind.  Next few laps were a little more of the same, some smaller attacks and they were all quickly recovered.  Final lap on the back straight another attack and I was sitting 3rd wheel and had a decent lead out from the guy in front of me who I ended up passing about 10 feet before the line and taking 2nd place. Final race of the night was another granny gear race and both Groups A & B raced together, this time we did the 1/4 mile loop and a smaller 1/8 mile loop which I took 5th overall and 1st in the B Group.  Also made some contacts with a few local guys to start getting in some group rides, and also the possibilty of joining the one local race team.   

NatO 4-15-08