July 1 Night at the Oval

What a great night for racing, temps were in the upper 70's, lower 80's, wind was out of the SW at 15mph, and there was a decent turnout too. A few new faces, and some very familiar ones. Have I mentioned how I stand out very much so at these events, it seems like every week it is myself and maybe one other person not in Yellow and Blue, I guess there was also some red and white last night. First race was a 10 lap scratch race, so for about the first 2 laps we were all just going pretty steady, and of course I was up front doing most of the work, so I decided to attack and see where it got me, needless to say it didn't get me too far as we regrouped shortly, but noone would step up and pull, so I went again, and this time we spilt the group up a little bit, but not too bad. By the time we came around to the final lap I didn't have much left in me, so a few attacks from others and I had to settle for an 5th place finish. Next was the 9 lap points race, which every 3 laps you would be sprinting for points, and they are doubled on the last sprint. This one I let one of the other guys do all the work the first couple laps until the sprint, which the first sprint I think I came across in 3rd, so back to sitting on and setting up for the next one, which I had a great lead out and ended up winning the 2nd sprint, and then we slowed down and regrouped again so I had someone else to work with, and appears we almost slowed down too much as going into the last lap I look over and notice the 2 masters in our race coming by at a high rate of speed, and I was the only one to jump on their wheel, and let the one pull me around for half a lap, then I had to go for it, by now I had a pretty good lead on the rest of the pack, and came across in first and ended up winning the points race. Then he decided to switch things up and have us do a 3 lap scratch race the opposite direction, and at the start the one guy turned it into a 3 lap sprint basically, I tried to hold his wheel as long as I could, but that didn't happen and I ended up in 5th place. Next race was a big gear race, which this was the first time I had my 52x11 so trying to get started in that gear is a pain, but once you get going all is ok, well unless you drop your chain over the top of your chainring like I did and have to shift it back on, which cost me a few valuable seconds, but I was back into it and gaining on a few guys, and by the time we got around the last corner I was in 5th place and gaining on people, I shot right in between 2 guys that had obviously given up, and took 2nd place. Final race for the night was the granny gear race which was both the A&B groups together, the whistle blows and we are off, man do I love my new pedals, I was in so quickly I had a gap in the first 50 feet, and I can hear from behind me Carson screaming out "Go you mountain biker" I don't know how I did it but I was able to spin it up to 24 mph at one point, one guy did get around me and I could not get back on him at all, so I settled in for a 2nd place. Overall for the night I took 3rd in the B group and 3rd in the Cat 5's. Pics will be up sometime...