Circlin’ under the lights

It was a nice last night, beautiful sunset, just a bit of a nip in the air to remind us that, officially, it is still winter.  I am not sure how many of my companions marveled at the sunset in their hypoxic daze.  It was Tuesday night fun at Hellyer, and The Wife and I trudged southward to join with 30+ others to see what Larry Nolan could throw our way.   It was a good workout, fun to meet up with old and new friends, and start on the learning curve of a few new skills, notably The Madison.

The ‘most interesting’ part of the night, for me, happened on a leadout drill.  Four laps, six riders.  Should not be too bad.  But I had not recovered fully from the long day at Zamora, I had been feeling a bit queasy all day, I have been slow (an understatement) in sprint drills in the past, so with Shelley Olds, BamBam, Ali, and Natasha in my group I begged to go first so I could set the pace and get it over with fast.  I got a good drop from the rail, ramped it up, put my head down and led out.  I expected to hear a call for me to pull off near turn 3, but nothing from my companions who were mysteriously silent.  At the end of the first lap I figured I was getting low in the tank and time for someone else to do some work so I pulled up.   And only ‘Pocket Rocket’ Shelley came by, yelling at me to get her wheel.  Yeah, right.  I made an attempt, but who was I kidding.  Coming into turn 3 I heard Ali behind me yelling “pull up, pull up”, and I did as I was told and watched her pulling BamBam and Natasha in their attempt to catch Shelly.  At the end of the drill, as we pulled up near the judges stand, BamBam was asking “whose idea was it to let THAT guy go first?”   Sorry ladies; I had no intent to drill you off the back.  Next time just yell for me to slow “down”.

Lots of good practice with moto-pacing as Rob pulled us around the circles, even on our Madison warm up.  He was drilling it the last few laps on that one, and I got to see the fury of the “Legs of Gio” as he pulled in front of me with a cadence that has to be somewhere off the charts.  Bet he could do well on Beth’s ‘overpass challenge’.  Going to be a fun summer of Tuesday night sufferin’!