I left the house in the rain, reminded of why I prefer to ride with fenders when it is wet. Within a block, I was completely soaked from head to toe. At least it was warm.

As expected, the rain kept some people away, and with only two women there, the C and Women’s fields were combined. Off we went. The pace was fairly reasonable through the first ten laps, and I stayed with the main group, even making a split after a few laps. Then, in the back straight, two people in front of me accelerated and passed the group on the right. Chris Mayhew (marshal) yelled “Go! Go!” which I took as my cue to not miss another selection, so I grabbed a wheel and followed. A few moments, as I pulled around the front of the pack, I realized this just wasn’t the group accelerating, it was a break. Oh. And I was in it. I huffed and puffed at the back for a lap, then sat up. I grabbed a wheel at the back of the pack, then the pack accelerated to pull in the break (and launch another attack) and I slid off the back. At least I wasn’t alone. I settled in with a group of four or five, and we worked together for another five laps or so. When I realized we were about to lapped by the (solo) break, I sat up, and waited for the pack–no need to expend extra energy for no reason.

As the pack (now whittled down to only eight people) passed, I caught on (along with a few my companions) and sat in. The pace was odd, choppy, really–with first place half a lap ahead, no one wanted to work, and the three riders at the front sat up in the back straight every lap. This bothered some folks at the back, since we had to brake entering the last corner. Mayhew kindly told them “if you’re going to be at the front, you might want to pedal.” Still, things didn’t speed up until the last lap, and even then, the pace wasn’t too quick. As we entered the back straight, I sat up–being a lap down I didn’t want to confuse the standings. Still, I managed to finish 10th.

A few takeaways:

• I think, given the overall pace, I could have stayed in the pack in the entire night, had I not gone with the break. Lesson learned.
• I felt pretty comfortable riding in the pack in the corners. I don’t think I was too loosey-goosey, either. At least I didn’t hear anyone swearing at me.
• Apparently forgetting food and water wasn’t a big deal (yep, no bottles, no energy bar).

In general, it was a positive evening. I’m sure the rain had something to do with the pace, and I’ll be curious to see what the race time and average lap time were (I’m guessing it was on the slow side). Still, I’ll take the little victories when I can.

Posted on 4 June 2008