Tuesday night at Pacific Raceways.

Tuesday night was the second PR this year, counterclockwise down the fire escape. I attacked from the start just like last week, but unlike last week it was just for fun. After staying away solo the entire time last week I didn't particularly expect them to let me go this time. Besides, the races are pretty short down there early in the year, may as well make sure that everyone gets a good workout. The pack did not disappoint. They chased me down in just under a lap. There were a bunch of attacks throughout the evening and I went with at least half of them, but nothing was sticking. For the first prime there was a lot of energy as the pack seemed pretty excited at the possibility of winning the Oh Boy Oberto polo shirt that was up for grabs. I went to lead out Joe and was laying down a really aggressive pace around the bend coming into the closing 200 meters with him on my wheel when I heard him yell "go for it." We had opened up a sizeable gap on the peloton and Joe let me take the prime since I had opened up the gap. For the second prime it was pretty similar to the first except replace Joe with Andrew and stick Richter on his wheel. As I was sprinting for the line trying to lead Andrew out, I hear Andrew telling me to go for it and see him drop off. I barely managed to hold off a charging Richter who didn't appear to immediately notice that Andrew had let a gap open. As we crossed the line he was a little pissed at us for our "tactics." I explained that I didn't think Andrew was sweeping and he was just gassed.

Unbeknownst to me the second prime also marked two laps to go and the next time around was the bell lap. I was sitting pretty far back but Byron pulled me up to the front with Joe on my wheel. Down the Fire Escape there was a recycled guy and a BRI guy off the front but Jon Ryan and got up to the front and put in a good pull to start reeling them in (after a little pushing with Johnny Sundt). We hit the climb 20-25 people back and finished it about ten people back. At the top Andrew came up and worked his way onto my wheel in front of Joe. With three or four hundred to go I started ramping it up passing the 5 or six guys left in front of me. I kept amping the pace up and Andrew was feeling a little gassed and didn't have the juice to come around me. Joe was waiting for Andrew to go and waited too long. Richter, who had jumped onto Joe's wheel as we rolled past, read it well jumping with ~75 meters to go. Joe jumped late only 50 meters from the line and Andrew and I rolled in for third and fourth respectively. I'm not certain who took fifth but they were a ways back from the front four. After the sprint I went up and congratulated Richter on the win and was happy to see that he agreed Andrew hadn't been sweeping in that second prime. Never good to walk away from a race with people pissed, especially a training race.

Overall a pretty good night, I was riding aggressive, took both primes and we took second, third, and fourth place. We should have walked away with the win too, but weren't firing on all cylinders. No big deal, it's PR and that's what it is for. Practice.

PR standings (I think)
Me in first with 11 points
Dave and Joe tied for second with 8
Andrew in third with 5
Pruit and whoever took fifth last night tied for fifth with 1