photo credit: Martin Reis
My first heat was nothing to write home about - I was tentative in the corners, was giving up good lines easily, basically not racing. Since then, I've had a few people tell me that they seriously doubted my ability to repeat in the final. And frankly, so did I!
No matter - I put it aside, and the "semi final" was a bit better. Better start, went backwards a little bit when I got nervous in the corners, but pulled it together to hang on for second. Still, I wasn't trusting the bike or the tires like I needed to be.
By the time the final came around, I had had a cookie and a bit of bourbon (thanks to Ms. Pfeiffer). With the longer course and more laps, I was pretty confident I could overcome any mistakes (or maybe that was the bourbon thinking?). I went for it right from the start, and got the hole shot, and pushed for the first few laps. I was feeling good, and by about lap 4, I had a pretty good lap on the field. With my typical inability to pace myself over a longer distance, I started to slow down a bit and second place, Claude, was catching up. By lap 10 (of 15) she was on my wheel, and was not to be dislodged.
Last lap was an exciting one - in corner 2, Claude tried to pass on the inside, but didn't have enough room. She knocked the cone over, and it went skittering under my bike between the wheels, while I prayed to not go down. Corner 4, she made one last attempt to pass. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but she didn't have enough room to pull it off. I could feel her front wheel buzzing my rear, and I just kept my head up & powered on while she crashed into the boards behind me, mere feet from the finish.
photo credit: Martin Reis
The men's race was also pretty exciting - defending champ Shawn went down and lost half a lap, which he managed to make up on the two leaders, and outsprinted Kuz at the end.
Ted pulled off the win in the rubber tire race (of course). Fun times on the rink all around!
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