Imperial Winter Series - Race 2 - 10th Dec 2011

A good week's training under my belt at the gym, came into the race feeling pretty pumped up and excited. Looking to right the previous week's wrongs and actually make it to the sprint, intact and full of beans. The pace was every bit as fast as the previous week, and there were some big attacks off the front despite the cold and the decent breeze. I kept my head down and out of the wind for most of the race, following good wheels and looking to stay out of trouble.

Things got very hairy at one stage when we came up on the 4th Cat race. Their pace was obviously fairly high because they'd been consistently shelling riders throughout the first half hour. A breakaway tried to used the 4th Cats to escape, so everyone was on their toes trying not to be caught out. We flew up the finishing straight, attempting to get past them before we all hit the hairpins as one enormous bunch... Didn't quite make it. This led to some hairy moments on the very inside of the first hairpin, but it all came out right in the end. Had to sprint to keep up with the front runners, but we all came together and got ready for the final sprint.

Only thing was some of the 4th Cats broke away and we had to let them come past within 5 laps to go. After the neutral lap, everyone was feeling pretty refreshed so everything got pretty rapid pretty quickly. There had been some pretty nasty accidents, and for the final laps we were having to skirt round one poor guy who had hurt himself fairly badly on the fast bottom corner at the end of the back straight. The bunch held their nerve though, and we all flew into the final straight. I had to fight through again, and I felt like I was travelling pretty quickly by the end. 10th was a decent result in the circumstances, looking good for the leaderboard and but still looking to actually execute a decent sprint. How exactly does Cav do it???