Yikes!

I had a close call at the races last night.  Unfortunately we had a crash in my first race and some of the guys went down.  I was able to ride high and avoid the wreckage but I think one of the guys may have broken some bones.  Hopefully everybody heals fast. 

The crash happened in our "unknown distance" race.  Which is the race where you don't know how many laps you are doing until they ring the bell - and then you have one lap left.  We did about 8 laps and then they rang the bell.  Right after they rang it, one of the guys pulled out of his cleat and rolled over the handlebars.  They suspended our race and ran the other two cat 4 men's races.  And then they re-ran our race.  I thought that since we only had one lap to go that the race would be really short.  But no, it was "unknown" again and we went at least 6 laps before they rang the bell.  I was getting tired!  Some of the guys also thought it would be short and gambled their strength by attacking early, which made the race extra fast.  I really didn't want to re-run that race but I was glad when we all finished safe the second time.  It was good maybe to calm everyone's nerves.  

I also had a close call at Tuesday's practice.  I was riding slow and one of the guys wasn't paying attention and hit my bike from behind.  I was able to keep my bike upright and he did too so neither of us went down.  My bike was fine but I saw him adjusting his handlebars later. 

The next race was the miss-and-out and I was eager to redeem myself after last week's first round miss.  Last week in the women's race I was out on the first lap because I got stuck on the inside.  So this time I made sure I was on the outside.  But the wave didn't come around like I thought it was going to and I was out again on the first lap!  So my revised strategy is to get in the front and go to the outside on the first lap.  Carrie rode at the front and was fine on the first lap but then didn't stay there and the same thing happened to her.  She went to the outside but because there were still so many riders the wave didn't move up and she was stuck - out on the second lap.

Here I am telling some kind of fish story to Carrie and Kelly.  Carrie also raced with the men.

The last race was a 4x4 points race.  The speed was fast but my legs felt good.  I thought of attacking but the guys were watching really close and I didn't think I could get away with it.  I'll have to try something next time.  I guess you never know for sure if you don't give it a shot.

This is what the track looks like after the sun goes down.  You can see the moon rising.  We stayed until everything was finished because we were carpooling with Brian and he has to shut off the lights.  It felt really quiet and erie when he finally flipped the switch and the lights went out and we left the deserted track.