The forecast for the day was for a scattering of showers but as the day unfolded it was clear racing could proceed - largely uninterrupted. I was planning on riding just the Scratch Race as the other event offered to the Senior men was a sprint event, to which I am not well suited. It turned out that the five hundred meter time trial was scheduled to take place before the Scratch race. I decided to race the time trial event as a warm-up for the scratch race.
I rode the five hundred meter time trial with no expectations. I went hard in the race but as soon as it finished I began my warm-up for the scratch race and did not concern myself with the results from the previous race.
The scratch race consisted of twenty two laps of the Sundrive circuit. The race was aggressive from the beginning with attacks going inside the first lap. I did not respond to any of the early attacks and relied on my competitors to close down the moves. On the third lap as one of the early breaks was caught I launched a speculative attack, not sure of the impact it would have -the purpose was to test legs around me. I opened a substantial gap immediately and was soon joined by John Lynch and Derek Cunningham - this was to develop into the race winning move.
Our group of three worked well together, sharing the pace setting and it soon became clear that this move would contest for the Lenister title. After some attacks and counter attacks the decisive move was made by John Lynch, attacking two laps from the finish for a fine solo win. I placed in the silver medal spot beating off Derek Cunningham in a sprint finish.
As I was standing around watching the five hundred meter presentation I heard my name being called. In my rush to get warmed up for the scratch race I had overlooked a bronze medal.
All things considered, it was not a bad day at the track. I would have liked to take a win in the scratch race but the unexpected bronze in the five hundred meter time trial lessened my disappointment.
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