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What Mike Z. saw:
Category:
Liz, Paloma and I went to the Velodrome last Friday to cheer for Richard and Pritpal. It was great fun to watch. Richard took second in one of the races. He will be able to do a much better job of giving the results.
Larry Nolan came from behind to win the A category overall. It came down to the last race of the evening. I can't remember the proper name, but it is also called Devil Take the Hind Most (I like to call it Devil Gets the Ass End). The second place overall going into the race was the last guy out before the final 3 sprint to the win. Larry got to relax for the final 3 sprint, but since one of the other 3 was a Postie, I think they let Larry win, not that he could have been stopped Friday night anyway.
Pritpal put in some good performances helping Larry to accumulate all his points. All in all, it was a good way to spend a Friday night and is the latest I have been out in a long time. I'll have to go watch and maybe participate next year.
Let's see, if I add up the time I spent watching bike racing on Friday (track), Sat (Vuelta), and Sun (Vuelta, SF Grand Prix, and some stage race in Minnesota that came onOLN after the SFGP), it amounts to a lot. At least I got a 90 minute ride in on Sunday.
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What Richard saw:
Category: B
Result: 3rd
It was great having Mike and the family down at the track on Friday. As he already reported, the $1000 for the Prudential Rider of the Year (the prize for the season-long A omnium) was still up for grabs going into the evening. Larry Nolan, Adam Smith and James Hibbard were only separated by 7 points, which is the amount awarded for winning a single event, and there were the usual 4 events for each group. Pritpal was riding the A's and I was there riding the B's.
Larry was riding well, and managed to get himself in front of James Hibbard and clear of Adam Smith in the points race. Adam had a poor race and didn't score in the points race. Pritpal put in a couple of big efforts to chase down people for Larry, and this helped keep Tim Cranshaw, Adam's team mate, in check. It all went down to the final miss and out and James messed up and was eliminated for 5th with Larry still going. This meant that Larry had won and he started celebrating immediately, and won the race with a nice sprint and took the win in style. It was exciting that the title went down to the final race.
As to my racing, I did reasonably well, and enjoyed my last serious racing of the season. In the win and out, I got 4th - I just couldn't come round Kevin Fox and he drew level with me in the season omnium, tied for 6th. I won one of the sprints in the points race, winning a pound of Peet's coffee in the form of a voucher in the process, but didn't do enough to place in the event, getting 6th.
In the scratch race, I got myself well-placed, and tried valiently to come round David Webb, but he held me off to take the win. Our final race was also a miss and out and I with our large group of riders, this was again a long race. I managed to escape trouble once, and spent a lot of time at the front. I eventually ran out of legs and got 4th. My total of 9 points was enough to give me 3rd for the evening, though Kevin Fox got second and this meant that he pipped me into 6th in the season omnium, leaving me 7th.
So, looking back, I had a good season at the track. One win on a Wednesday night, and a whole bag of second places plus a few thirds, and even a little bit of prize money and a few prizes. Easily my most productive season! I am looking forward to introducing people to the joys of the velodrome when the team goes there next month. it is a lot of fun.
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