Seth, being the defending NH Amateur State Games Champion of the Cat B points race, asked that I block to help him defend his title. I’m pretty competitive, so I told him that I had plans of taking his title away, despite the fact that he's a teammate.
On the first points lap he took first place, gaining 5 points. I was day-dreaming at the moment of the sprint and fell back in the group, so I didn’t get a single point. I was going to have to make up some ground on him if I was planning on any kind of victory. I made my way back towards the front as the field recovered from the sprint. In general, Seth and I tend to stay close to the front in any race. I think it stems from the fact that we’re both all around riders, not particularly strong at sprinting. So we proceeded as we usually do, keeping the pace up for the group.
As the second sprint began I realized I had managed to be boxed into the sprinters lane when an early attack came from behind. Seth was ready however, and picked up a couple more points, and I still had zero. At this point I realized I had one mission: make sure Seth wins.
After the sprint Seth moved to the front again to keep up the pressure until the final sprint. Realizing that he needed to save every drop of energy he had left, I made my way up to him and yelled for him to get out of the sprinters lane and grab my wheel. The next two laps consisted of me emptying my tank at the front of the pack. Seth sat behind me watching for an attack. The B group has some serious sprinters. I wanted to wear them out, so I kept the pace up as high as I possibly could. I didn’t look back to check if a gap was opening. I didn’t care, because I was going to give it everything to put him into position for the final sprint.
With one and a half laps to go, two IBC members came over the top. Seth reacted and took third on their wheel, and I grabbed Seth’s wheel. As we came around corner four for the bell lap, I let a gap open that I knew was going to be painful to close. To further seal the deal, I remained in the sprinters lane and let the entire pack of potential spoilers take the long way around.
For the second year in a row, Seth Davis took gold in the Cat B points race. Congratulations, Seth!
2 comments:
ill!
congrats seth! and props to nick for making the decision to work for his teammate. might have been different had nick got the first points, but once seth had the lead it was the right thing to do. bravo! wish i could have seen it. we need a video camera up there for every race...
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