Half Race Report

I wasn't planning to race tonight due to the forecast. I'm sick of driving all the way to Blaine, only to get rained out. I had planned to do a hard training ride after work, so I had my bike in the truck. When I left work, it was just starting to rain in St. Cloud, so that scrapped my plans. I called Skibby and found out that it wasn't raining in the Cities, so I hauled my ass down there to race.

The first race of the night was a 16-lap snowball race, with 12, 6, 6, and 8 points awarded every 4 laps. Tainter told me he was going to take the first sprint, but I had no idea he was going to go on the first lap. I was on his wheel, and he squeezed through a gap that I couldn't get through. He ended up lapping the field, and I ended up second on the last lap behind Crosby, to take 4th in the race. Tainter is still peaked from nationals, and is fast as shit right now.

One thing I've noticed about the Cat 2's is that they ride much closer to each other. This was a little disconcerting at first, but I think I'll get used to it quickly. There were a couple times I felt like I was just in the way. There's definitely a learning curve.

Next up were heats for the KOS "Sprint", which is basically a 6-up match sprint. The pace stayed relatively high for all 3 laps, and I just sat on Crosby's wheel to qualify in 2nd. I had a couple people give me shit for sandbagging, but the truth is that I felt like absolute shit tonight, and needed to save everything for the finals.

It turns out my saved energy was in vain, as the Sprint finals got rained out after half a lap. For the record, I was going to totally kick some serious ass! Donimator gave me a massive push at the start, and I was gonna ride that all the way to the finish.

I did manage to hit a new PR on the track during my warm-up, but I was cooked after that.

It was worth driving down to the track tonight because I got a good workout and more experience as a Cat 2. I am really sick of this fucking rain, though.