Thanks for the photo Linda. As usual, lots of good shots on skinnyski.com (please help support his photography efforts by buying his pictures).
We started off the night at a new registration location. Things were a bit hectic at the start, but went pretty well considering. Then Treb, Painman, Casper, and I went out for an hour warm-up. We went a bit too hard, and Painman was not happy. Just trying to blow the carbon out of the legs you know.
LSC had a strong team present in the 1/2/3 points race for the first time in a long while. I decided to patrol the front of the race, and do my best to keep things in check, allowing Johnny B, Painman, and Patrick to make a run at the sprints. There were 60 guys in the race, with a very strong presence from Grandstay, Grand Performance, and Flanders. I started by following newly clad Grandstay member BK down the hill, then followed an attack by Dave Pramann.
From that point on, it's mostly a blur. The sprint laps were fast and furious. I never actually participated directly in any of the sprints. I simply tried to stay near the front to mark post sprint attacks. Dougo had his sprinting legs on as expected. Sickboy and Sedgewick tangled a bit in one of the corners, but stayed upright thankfully. Painman scored a 3rd in the 2nd sprint. His first points at Opus in a while. Congrats.
A few moves went off the front, but as usual, everything kept coming back together for the sprint laps. After the 4th of 6 sprints, the field relaxed a bit, and I did a soft attack down the hill. I got a gap, but was solo. I really could have used a partner at that point. I pressed on, but not exceptionally hard. Half-way up the hill, I could see the pack was still relaxed and letting me dangle, so I jumped again. My gap stretched significantly, but I knew it was to be short lived with the sprint lap coming up.
The field was closing in quickly as I came across the line for the bell. Then Casper and 2 others come through me without the pack in tow. I dug deep to get on to them, and thought there might be a chance to get some points, to no avail. I started my sprint early as the pack closed in, and Dougo came screaming past with Marcotte close behind. At this point the pack was all strung out, with gaps between the front riders.
I went to the back of the pack to recover, and was unaware that Dougo and Eric had gotten away after the sprint. Treb did take notice and rode the front to try and close the gap, but they were gone. The field sprint was to be for 3rd. Johnny B was back a bit, but found a good wheel in BK, and made it to the front of the field, but couldn't quite get to a fast finishing Dan Swanson. What a fun race.
Afterwards, Treb, Painman, Skibby, Casper, Sone, the 2 juniors from Hudson (Huesboe and Hackworty), and I went to the Scoreboard. I talked Linda out of going to Rainbow Foods for dinner. Great food, conversation, plus we caught both the Wild and Twins games. Thanks to everyone who came out to race, and we'll see you next week.
4 comments:
that is good stuff JimmerC. i actually have to read the race reports from you and others to find out what happened in a race I personally was in...
maybe in the next few weeks, i'll be able to look up;)
good job. very impressed as usually with all the Loonies.
Patroling the front is right, there's only about 17 photo's of you on skinny ski.
let's see, the race was fast, and you spent the whole race on the front... see the connection?
It's a conspiracy. They let me ride the front, so I'm too tired to sprint? Maybe it's cause they like me? Maybe they just like watching me waste myself in the process of obtaining 0 points?
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