Went Keith-less today. In a very machaivellian way he said he gets no points at a 4th cat race now he is 3rd cat, so there wasn't much reason for him to go!
Actually, he wanted to do the Training Group more than he wanted to race
Relatively mild, with a MASSIVE headwind down the back straight and blustery to boot. Could feel myself getting buffeted all over the place on the warm up laps.
Thought it would be well attended - good weather forcast, not so many illnesses, people now have got over Christmas excesses. Wasn't wrong - there were loads of people - must have been about 60? There were some right tasty looking types too! Not to many women - again, sigh.
Pretty immediately there was a break off the front, but as per it didn't last for long with the headwind. After a few laps the group started to split and I made the break to the leading group, unfortunately dragging others along behind me. There was another break of 4 that got away, and stayed away for about 15 minutes, but I guess it was just too much for them and they got caught about 25 minutes in. In the meantime there had been another couple of bids for a split and I managed to keep up - without dragging anyone else this time. But it all went to ratshit on the windy backstraight where the front were slowing down and everyone was bunching up again.
Unfortunately, on the next lap at the hill/ chicane after the finish line, there was a huge crash. It happened right behind me, all I could hear was the hiss of breaks, loads of swearing and the horrid sound of clashing metal. Looked behing and there was a big human/bike pile up on the circuit. I had just made an effort to get from the middle to the front - glad I did otherwise it could have been me!
Things calmed down a bit after, but the organisers let the race carry on and we kept out of the way for the next couple of laps. After the accident was off the circuit, it all started heating up a bit, but still no one was going off the front, they were all saving it all for the sprint finish. Lots of bunching as usual.
After the 5 laps had been called, I was getting a bit hacked off with all the bunching up, and thought that I did not want to be in the middle of things with a sprint finish as I am not fast enough (....yet, Adam). So on the 2nd lap to go I accellerated round the outside and pegged it up towards the finish line. Some of the blokes faces were priceless There were a couple of real double takes as they realised they were about to be overtaken by a girl! But they couldn't do anything about it . I only sat on the front for all of 10 seconds, cos when I looked behind the rest of the pack was right on my jacksy, so I didn't press the advantage. Still had a huge huge grin on my face. First time I had been at the front of a race!
I managed to keep to the front group for the next two laps. On the last lap pegged it round the outside again by the sheds, had to jink to the inside on the sprint finish as there was no room for me to get through and pushed and pushed to get .....15th!
No points yet, but not bad going for such a tasty group and such a large one too. Quite pleased.
The racing seems to be getting more tactical too, and I am getting confident enough to chase the breaks and take the front ( ). I guess the next goal would be to try and get in a breakaway group, to see what that feels like.
Anyway, hey ho thats the last one for a while.