no short races for us in Oregon, and lots of fast juniors in the 1/2/3 thursday nighter left me in 5th for the night.
First race up was a 60 lap madison and my team made it 2 exchanges before a crash took out my teammate ... who forgot to wear gloves, nice, at least I got one pull in. So we opted out after that and let the young kids continue to warm up. I had no idea how fast those juniors were going until our 30 lap scratch.
The scratch race started out ok, then the attacks started and I was left out of the fast group that eventually lapped the rest of us. I did a few pulls in the back group, but as the laps wound down and the lapping was likely to occur so I went to the back to wait for the sprint for 5th. 2 of the riders who lapped the field took off with over a lap to go and I got on their wheel, or at least as close as I could to steal 5th place for the first race on the omnium.
Next up was the miss-n-out where I was able to nab my favorite spot in 2nd wheel just outside the lead rider. I floated back when I could to get some draft, but mostly stayed just behind his bars to ensure no one passed us. I was able to stay there until 5 riders to go when things started to jostle around a bit and held off for one more before the 3 fast guys on the night lit it up and left me in 4th.
The only thing left was the 50 ... no 40 lap points race as the sun threatened to depart. That ended up being more than enough as I stayed back for the first few sprints and once again missed the break that went off. I did a few pulls here and there, but they made quick work of it and with the lapping done I nabbed a few 2nd and 3rd place points and then was able to launch a decent sprint at the end of the night, only to be beat by one of the juniors ... again. I must have been 5th or so in the points race and ended up 5th on the night, with 2 juniors ahead of me.
Nice to see the young riders mixing it up with the lead groups and keep the rest of us on our toes. I got a decent workout in and am one week closer to masters nationals.