Category: B

I didn't race last week as I wasn't feeling great, and neither, it turns out, did Pritpal. However, we were both out tonight in our usual groups. PP was in the A's and I was in the B's. I was feeling splendid dressed up to the nines in my sparkly new skinsuit.

We warmed up as usual and I wasn't feeling too bad, all things considered. My first race was a win and out, and my legs felt OK, and this gave a bit of a rush to the head, as I tried an attack at completely the wrong time and totally screwed up any chance of placing in the race. Next was a tempo race (point a lap) where I followed the correct wheel and scored a couple of points on the last lap, enough for 3rd in the race, and a few omnium points.

The B's then had short 3-lap scratch race heats, almost match sprints really, with the winners going to a final and the losers riding a consolation round for the final omnium point. I missed the cut for the final, but was well placed in the consolation round when we were going rather quickly. Unfortunately, my body decided that it wanted a little rest by way of a brief coast... oooops! - it has been a while since I did that. This screwed up my rhythmn and I didn't figure in the sprint.

PP was riding OK in the A's. He had a good miss and out and finished 5th. The A's also had an Australian Pursuit which was fun to watch with Gary Yakota refusing to pass the people in front of him for as long as possible so as to get a rest - not a tactic I had considered before.

The final event was the combined A's and B's 50 lap (~10 miles) points race. For some reason this week, I was able to hang with the pace the A's were setting. It was certainly very fast in places - I was wishing I had a little bigger gear at times, but at others, even when it was fast, I was able to make up ground in the bunch. Weird. It was good, and for the first time for a long time, I finished this race with the main bunch, on the same lap.

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