Friday, September 21, 2007

Finally some racing results

So, Wednesday night was the final Rumble on the River points race for the season. The race is on a converted 1/3 mile race track here in Asheville. I've been racing this race since May and doing all I could do stay with the B race to not get dropped. Last year I was having a lot of success at this race. This year has been a different story. For the first time, I raced the black and white Orbea Orca. I had been racing my Orbea XL8R up until now. There is usually a crash in just about every race I am in, and I was not ready to race the Orca just yet. But, this night I decided to race it. Immediately I felt a difference. There was less effort to stay with the group and I spent more time towards the front of the pack. There were a few close calls, but I stayed safe. The B race is about 30 laps and every 5th lap is a bell lap where you sprint for points. We had about 20 to 30 racers.

I sat in the group for most of the race and by lap 20 I felt I could do something. What I tried early this season was just to stay with the group and contest the last sprint. The last sprint was worth double points. I sat in and with 3 laps to go I shot hard off the front and got a huge gap on the field. I kept looking back but could not see anyone. Slowly they brought me back, but I held them off barely to get the final sprint. I just about got nipped at the line. But, I did it. I put in a hard effort and held onto it. My legs were dead. But, it was rewarding to get some results finally after an unplanned year. So, I came in 2nd overall and 7th for the season omnium for the B race. Not so bad for where I was earlier in the year.

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