Wow! What a day.
My first race was Masters 30+, all categories. Well, I hung on for about 1.5 laps before I was dropped. We were HAULING ASS down the stretch at a blistering 35.9mph. I've never reached that speed on a flat before. At the backstretch into a strong headwind we were still flying at 24mph avg. Clearly the tempo was way too fast for my slow ass and I was dropped. Brutal.

Then my next race was the cat 4. Saw Rob in the pack, said Hi, chatted a little and off we went. I was able to hang for 5 laps and then someone's tire popped in a turn and bamm.. bodies were flying and I was behind the crash. Damn, gap opened up into the stretch with headwind. F*ck! So I TT'd the other laps around the track and wam bam, another crash. Guy from the South Chicago Wheelmen on the ground, hurt badly it seems. I pulled off at that point and called it a day. I've had seen enough.
I watched the finish of the 4's with Rob blasting through the finish at 23rd place. Nice job.
Ambulance was called and delayed the following cat 3 race by quite a bit which was also fun to watch once it got underway.

Was fun to watch the cat1/2/3 race duking it out with multiple attacks and riders OTF all the time.

Then the 5's came and I was with Rob and watched him coaching little Meatball from the sideline. It was quite a good race until some fools in their oxygen deprived brains took the wrong turn on the course and took at least 3 riders down while they were taking a left turn in the middle of the pack, which was going straight.
Joel was doing good. Nice position, taking some good pulls, covering some attacks. Last lap Joel was into the headwind taking a pull and I said to Rob "Dude, he's gonna pop" where Rob replied "No, he is exactly where he wants to be. The power is just flowing out of him, just watch."
So they come around on the finish stretch, Joel still in front, picking up speed with somewhere like 300-400 meters to go. I couldn't believe it. He was slightly nipped at the finish line by a couple of inches for 2nd place. Little Meatball got staying power, that's for sure.

Thomas