Category: 5
Result: Top ten

I had a long warmup at around 45 minutes. It ended up being useless since the race was quite slow in the first half. There was no "Dash for Cash" or primes so no one really wound it up. At the start of the race I got a good clip and went to the front. Another guy went off solo, but we were all going slow so no one cared. After a few laps Tim and I started drifting towards the back. Tim told me to hang on his wheel the whole race, and I did just that. There were a few surges when attacks happened. Riders tried to take Tim's wheel but I managed to repeatedly take it back. With 5 laps to go, it was getting soon to move up to the front. I told Tim to move up whenever he wanted. At 3 or 4 laps to go, Tim grabs on a wheel that sends us to the front. The effort was a dud, though, since the pack swarmed us after that and we were in the back again.

Near the end of the second to last lap, I told Tim again to move up front, but this time after the first corner. So coming through the first corner Tim started to wind it up. He was going pretty fast, so he paused and looked back to make sure I was there. I almost ran into him, but we kept going. When we reached the front, I tried to tell Tim to take it easy since we were at the front. Well he kept motoring past the guys and lead me out to the middle of the back straight. He was toast. I passed by and I pedaled just slow enough to let three guys pass me and then I latched on their wheels.

On the third corner, a guy cut me off and I had to brake a bit at the curb. At this point I was in 4th, and coming through the last corner I was still in 4th.

The finish line is about 275 meters from the corner, but the people in front of me already started to sprint. I couldn't get a good hold of a wheel, and several riders past me and I took 8th. I'm not sure why I couldn't grab anyone's wheel, though. I remember that I came out of the last corner on the inside where as everyone else was on the outside. The guy I was trying to follow was initially one bike length ahead.

So overall I am happy with my placing. I knew I could have done a little bit better here and there, especially in the sprint. I'd have to give most of the credit to Tim, his excellent draft and leadout got me into one of the best positions out of the last corner.

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