Category: B
Result: 2nd

The final Wednesday of the track season still brought a very good turnout this evening. The high-speed warm-up train was one of the largest I have seen - there must have been 20 riders in it at one point, and it took a long time to get to the front again when dropping back after taking a pull. Garry, though planning to attend, couldn't in fact ride this evening, and Pritpal was absent also.

In the B's, Nate Shaw and I resumed our friendly tussle of last week. I found out at the weekend that I had moved up to 3rd in the season-long standings, and if I wanted to hang onto that, I had to endsure that I didn't give too much ground to other riders, especialy Nate who was only 13 points behind me starting this evening.

The first race was almost a carbon copy of the first race last week, being a win-and-out. Going into the last lap, there was a tiring lone breakaway a little ahead, Nate was in second wheel of the chase and I was third. I seized my chance to attack and box Nate in at the same time, meaning that he couldn't come after me until I was well up to speed. I got a gap and help him off in similar fashion to last week to take the win.

The strikingly original program continued for the B's with a tempo, slightly varied to give two places deep, 2&1, with 5,3,2&1 on the final lap. I took some points, Nate took some points, I ended up with 8 and Nate with 10, so he was 1st and I was 2nd, just like last week.

Next up was an unknown distance scratch race, which was again what we had last week. There were lots of attacks, expecially from the CRC boys who had three riders in the B's, and I ended up trying to closely mark Nate. I succeeded up to a point, and sadly the one time I lost his wheel was when the bell went! I found myself boxed by several riders, and was unable to advance, despite trying 3 different gaps which all closed on me and I ended up not scoring any points. Nate got 2nd behind a successful CRC rider who timed his attack well. Lesson learned, I hope: don't get out of position!

Our final event was to be one of Art's strange events (Scrabble or 21), but a rider revolt meant we did a miss-and-out instead. This went very well for me. I sat on the shoulders of the lead riders for a few laps before feelign that they were slowing too much. I didn't want to get caught up in the elimination sprints, so I went to the front and pulled for several laps, and was pleasantly surprised to still be there when three of us remained. I sat up for a rest on the free lap, and pulled in behind Nate, who led out for the sprint. After being in a similar position last week, I realised that I made my move too late and lost it. This time I went as we came onto the back straight and I surprised both Nate and myself with how strong I was, beating him comfortably for my second win of the evening.

My two wins and one second were beaten by Nate's one win and 3 seconds, so he took the omnium for the evening by 3 points. This evening's result means that I retained my 3rd position in the season standings. Time to put in for the upgrade to cat 3!

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