NWS Crit

Last night was another installment of the NWS Crits at the Wilkes Speedway. 4 of the other PRP guys showed up, two of whom do not have kits yet, so we'll call them stealth pirates. After the 3-2-1-Go! everything was pretty tame, nothing too crazy going aside from a couple of surges. With about 7 to go, Stackhouse took off after we caught back up to the Prime winner from the previous lap. He stayed solo off the front until about 3 laps to go. The pack was closing in on him, and everyone was chomping at the bit to pull him back into the field. Just as we were closing in, I see a move to my left starting. Two BSG teammates were chatting/making eye contact. I had a mind-reading moment and realized they were going to attack. I shifted down and followed their attack. One guy either blew up or was just planning a lead out, but he sat up after about a quarter lap, so it was just the two of us. We were hauling, like in the 28-31mph range. I'm not even sure if we had a gap on the field at this point, everything was a blur the last two laps. Mostly a hypoxia induced blur, but a blur nonetheless. He pulled a little gap on me on the half lap, but I kept pulling hard to try to stay out front. With about 75 or so meters to go I heard the telltale clicking of gears behind me and had one of those, "crap!" moments. I was caught and passed by twelve riders having left nothing for a sprint at the end. From second to fourteenth in a matter of about 75 meters. meh.