Nice one Jo and well done Eleri. I wish I'd made but that's another story.
Well there was a crash in B Grade (a big field) at the final corner so they killed the race. He's OK.
This was the first time I'd raced in a women only crit so wasn't sure how I'd go. There were 8 of us which was a pretty good turnout and we went out fairly slowly at about 30 kph, gradually increasing. But it all felt pretty easy and I stayed down the back of the bunch. Unlike A Grade, no-one attacked. But at the Prime whistle, I managed to work my way up to about 4th wheel and came round the bottom corner in a good position. Big headwind and it's still about 500m from here so I gave myself a good hard talking to and convinced myself to
stay on the wheel of one of the other women. I learned this at the track! and then ditched her about 150m out and sprinted. Should have got out of the saddle at that point and been in a higher gear.
Only just came 2nd so I was thinking, actually I can contest a sprint. I found this a bit surprising! Don't really think of myself as a sprinter! Relaxed a bit for the next couple of laps and worked my to about 2/3 of the way back. Still on the hoods. Bell lap and got back up near the front but got a bit boxed in and missed the jump on the other side. Still stayed on the wheel of my leadout woman (not that she knew that) and ditched her near the end to comfortably take 3rd and not to far behind the winners.
Great racing and very pleased that LACC and Donna Meehan have made women's racing possible and included a B Grade. And it's not too fast - we averaged 32 but no-one came off the back until the last lap. It's flat out there and a mostly wide, easy course. Definitely worth a go.
PS: please note that I broke with tradition and I did not spend any time on the front at all. This is a first! Finally I got some tactics right