This (4/4 and 4/5) was a full weekend of racing.  First up was the Cat 4 crit at Spain Park High School which was part of the Hoover Cycling Festival.  Myself (Jeremy) and Chad Brown (slumming it with us Cat4s for a while) lined up against about 35-40 other racers.  It was a beautiful day and a good course.  Essentially half of the course was either a false flat or uphill, including a little 15-20 second kicker hill and the other half of the course was downhill.

            The race started off pretty tame and neither Chad nor I really attacked.  I was content to surf the front half of the pack and wait for the sprint.  That almost worked.  With three laps to go I was sitting in about 10th-15th wheel when the guy directly in front of me rolled a tubular and washed out.  I had enough time to grab the brakes, but I hit his bike and went head over handlebars.  There were several other riders taken down including one poor soul who ended up with a trip to the hospital.  I got up and figured out that I was OK and so was the bike.  I hustled to the Start/Finish line to get my free lap.  Got put in the back of the group and moved up a little over the next 2 laps, but ended up 25^th out of about 35-40.  Chad ended up 9^th I think.

            Sunday was a fun little event here in Huntsville – track racing events on a quarter mile speedway.  I rode the 20 miles to the event to shake off some of the soreness from yesterday’s spill.  There were only 8 or so in the B group (mixed 4/5s).  We did three events (with each event giving points towards an Omnium overall result) – a scratch race, a points race and a miss-and-out.  These things are a blast to do (and very low key compared to some road racing events).   I ended up 3^rd in the

 scratch race, 2^nd in the points race and 2^nd in the miss-and-out for a 2^nd place overall.  There was one fellow that I couldn’t out sprint and couldn’t drop with a hard attack – he was first place.