Keeley Report: Monsters of the Midway & Wheels on Willy

Monsters
cat 3
Lined up with 60 riders, 6 of which were ABD, so it was nice to ride
with a crew today. Our plan was to stay out of the wind and move up
at the end for the inevitable field sprint. We did a good job of
being aggressive a few times early in the race. David Reyes and his
father Al jumping off the front on several occasions. I found myself
way back with one to go, found Jay Corgiat's wheel on the backside and
took the express to the front of the pack. Jumped on Al's wheel going
into turn 3, took a decent line through turn 4 and sprinted to a
respectable 7th. Fast race, fun race, easy race when you could stay
tucked behind the big guys. I believe Ben was top 20 as well with the
rest of the guys finishing in the top 30 or thereabouts. Not bad for
our first stab at teamwork, it is only going to get better. There is
something to be said for having so many friendly dudes in the race
with you.


Wheels on Willy
master 3/4 race
We lined up, seemed like about 50 or so in the field. The official 
held us at the line for an extra minute as they cleared a car from the 
course. They then called the Chrono-metro team up to the front of the 
line en-masse for what I thought was a photo-op. It turned out to be 
an impromptu call-up to thank them for putting the race on. I'm not 
usually one to cry foul, but it was a little iffy that they had them 
start pretty much across the road about 5 feet in front of the line. 
The whistle went off and we took off at a leisurely pace being the 
chrono-wall. One of their riders took off and had about a 100 meter 
gap by the time we cleared the tricky downhill turn 2. Coming through 
turn four he had about the same, so I decided to join him, seeing as 
how he had about 15 teammates in the field and the move might actually 
work. I looked back and saw that I had a nice gap, with Jeff Watt 
from Vitamin Water glued to my wheel. We joined the Chrono-metro guy 
on the backside of the course going into turn three and began trading 
pulls. My memory is bad, but I think we were up there for a lap or 
two and the gap grew no bigger than about 100 meters. I felt like we 
were probably in good hands with VW and Chrono in a break, but it was 
not to be. We were reeled in about 10 mins. into the race and a few 
more attempts would be made to create a break, I was in several of 
them, but none had much chance. About 20 mins. into the race I found 
myself up the road with CBR's "editor" and Jeff Watt. "We need a 
Chrono-Metro rider to make this work" shouts the editor as I am 
thinking much the same. Within a few turns up screams a Chrono-Metro 
guy, we trade a few pulls, but the pack is right back on us. Now we 
are past halfway, so time to sit in for the field sprint unless 
something worthwhile forms up the road. I was just chilling about 4th 
wheel and another rider screams full blast directly into my ear at 
another rider to get off his ^$%^#^# bike. My CAT5 reflexes 
immediately kick in and I turn my head 180 (as the guy next to me does 
the same). His skewer slices through one of my spokes and I am off to 
the wheel pit. I was blessed with a good sendoff from the pit man (he 
must work out) and got back into the mix. Bad line into and out of 
turn 4 and no sprint for somewhere in the late 20's, what a bugger.
Cat 3 race
Bad clip in, faded wayyy back and took until about 30 mins. into the 
race to make it to the front. The race was fast from the gun and did 
not let up. I felt very shaky still from my earlier mishap and made a 
few mental errors that almost resulted in me being on the deck. 
Stayed in the top 10 for the final few laps and did not follow a good 
wheel into turn 4, resulting in a good hard sprint for 11th.
P1,2,3 race
Was literally shaking as I sat at the line with Tim H from Vitamin 
Water. "What are we supposed to do here," I ask. "Strap in and enjoy 
the ride, corners should be smooth. There will be a lull and then all 
Hell will break loose," was his response. Well, it was breaking loose 
from the start. I began near the back, clawed past a few people in 
the first few laps (there were 125 in the race according to the 
announcer), kept clawing, began finding myself being gapped riders, 
became a gapped rider and sat up 6 laps into the fray. Glad I was in 
it, wish I could have hung out longer. Our elite team lit it up 
pretty nicely, taking 2nd in a 5 man break and 2nd in the field spring 
along with some primes. A.S. showed some huge nuts again and finished 
top 3o with the big boys.