its probably a good thing you didnt ride today jo, as D grade was brutal. It was more like an all in brawl than a bike race. Me and Geoff were in both in D, and we were both going really well, Geoff was doing turns on the front, I was never further back than 5th or 6th. There were a few guys in there that probably should've been in C grade, though, and they attacked throughout. I felt brilliant, closing the gaps and countering everything. The pace was faster than last week where I only made 6 laps, but I was really comfortable up the front.
With two laps to go, one of the randwick guys launched the decisive attack. He got a big gap before two other guys, an older guy from some club I'd never heard before, and a kid that was probably a year older than me from north shore. I was boxed in momentarily, but when another kid from easts went, I found a gap and went for it. I timed it perfectly, because about a second later the whole bunch hit the deck.
Oblivious to what was going on behind, i caught and passed the kid from easts, and when i reached the older guy I sat on his wheel. The kid from north shore was further up the road. The easts kid caught us, and the older guy seemed more than happy to try and tow us up to the north shore kid.
As we came out of the swerple and onto the front straight to get the bell, disaster struck. I touched the easts kid's wheel at 40+kph, and unsurprisingly I hit the deck. I went from thinking about a podium to peeling myself off the pavement in less than a second.
Fortunately though, it happened so quickly that I still had my hands on my handlebars when I hit the deck, so nothing is broken. I do have a few big scratches up my arm, and a lovely bit of roadrash on my hip
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I don't know much about the other grades, as everyone was more worried about the crashes in D grade than the results. I was talking to the north sydney kid afterwards, and he said when he crossed the line in second, noone seemed to notice, so I can only imagine it was like that for everyone else.