Unlike last week’s wind blown, pack-splitting circuits at FBF, this week’s weather brought less wind and a greater chance for a field sprint; a discipline of the sport which is not exactly my forte. I am to sprinting as Chastity "Chaz" Bono is to the men’s room—I can get in there, but I don’t totally belong. So I began last night’s race with some trepidation, as we had a big field and a race of that size usually portends a field sprint. It would take a lot of effort to escape the clutches of the race, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try. If nothing else, forcing the field to chase would serve to wear out some of the sprint hopefuls or at least fatigue the lead out riders of those sprint hopefuls.

I had teammate Jaime and no longer secret teammate Marco in attendance last night, and our plan was to string the race out, force some chases and see if anything popped off the front. Wonder Wheels had about 15 guys in the race last night (I think they recruit at early bird special time at the local diners—they promise free jello—it’s hard to compete with that), so any move without them involved would be chased, and the race would then morph into a race between the break and the Wonder Wheel pursuit. I jumped off the front of the race about a half dozen times or so, and played the Wonder Wheel pursuit game a few times, and it really didn’t turn out so well.

The rest of the race rolled along with Chris Castaldi and I in close proximity as the race expanded out and contracted like an accordion made of panting men. With two laps to go, I saw the field sprint writing on the wall, and I found Marco and told him that I needed him to string out the field on turn three—some people need a leadout of about 500 meters, I need a leadout of at least a mile—and I’m not exaggerating. A long leadout suits my sprinting style, as it weeds out the more punchy sprinters, which I have no chance against. Marco did a great job of keeping it fast and then the Wonder Wheel train took over. Brian Rafferty pulled for the straight between turns three and four, and he was followed by quasi-Wonder Wheeler Dennis Schwandtner (you can’t fool me, Dennis, you were totally leading out). They were keeping the field thinned out, and as we went through turn four things were looking good.

Dennis pulled off and that left Chris on the front with about 300 meters to go, which might have been a tad early, as there was a headwind. Chris jumped and I followed. We were coming to the line quickly and I felt the pack coming toward us. I jumped around Chris with about 100 meters to go, hoping to be ahead of the oncoming rush from behind. Luckily, most of the pack wasn’t bearing down on us, and at the line Frank Arroyo beat me by about half a bike length, with an Innovation rider ahead of both of us. I finished third, which is a fine result for me in a field sprint. That result was later upgraded to second when the Innovation rider was DQ’d for racing out of his category (he’s a five, and um, beat all of us). That placing serves as my fifth second place at FBF this year. I am such a number two!

Side note from the night 

There was no appearance by George Hincapie last night, but I think there was a "George effect" last night, as the fields seemed a bit swelled. It just goes to show that you can never trust the internet.

Last night’s head song was lost in the bubbles of the post-race Leinenkugels.