Category: A
Result: Mid-pack

The last event this evening was a Madison, but Pritpal was not able to attend so I needed to find another partner. This I did in the guise of Josh Kadis so I ended up racing the Madison in Lombarbi Sports colours, which was different.

But there was racing before the Madison. First for the large A group (20 riders) was a win-and-out. At one point there were a couple of riders off the front and I managed to position myself to cover a bridge by Jackson Stewart which meant that we had a break of 4 away. Unfortunately, the rest were not about to let us escape and brought us back smartly. I finished in the bunch.

Second was a 15 lap scratch which was again raced quickly. A small group got off the front and looked promising, so I bridged up and got up to them, but in severe need of a rest. Unfortunately for me, a couple of riders in the break needed a rest also, and I got gapped twice and also dropped off the break as a result. This was annoying as the break was successful. I rolled in somewhere in the remains of the shattered chasing group.

In the miss-and-out, I was feeling the effects of my efforts in the first two events and was third out. But not before being given the opportunity to shut the door on Forrest Koenig after he let me know that he was on my outside by shouting "rail" at me.

Finally, we had the 50-lap Madison. This was fun. There were 6 teams and Mike Audley was also riding, though he didn't have a partner. As I indicated above, I partnered Josh Kadis and rode in a Lombardi Sports top for the event. Being thrown in well is a real rush - you must try it!

We got fourth, which wasn't bad. We missed one exchange due to too high a difference in speed. In general though, we were pretty smooth. I sprinted for at least two of the sprints. At the end, we contested the final sprint with the leading pair of teams, though they were a lap up on us. When I got thrown in with a little less than 3 laps to go, I knew what I had to do - launch myself ahead of the other two groups and give Josh a good exchange into the final lap to try to stay away. I did what I could, but the leaders were playing with us and Josh was passed close to the line, getting third on the final sprint and adding to our points total.

At some point, I'll be able to follow more clearly what is happening in the Madison, rather than concentrating solely on the whereabouts of my partner.

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