starlight circle race #1 (apr 21)

Shippensburg nighttime racing is back and oh how fun it is. Moonlight. Cool air. Freaky shadows. So much fun.

A few laps in a Mike Maret that had hitherto been uncharacteristically grumpy (even for Mike) rolled up beside me and said something about loving to race at night. I agree.

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Six riders came out for the inaugural race in the 2010 Starlight Circle Race Series, Kelly and Dillon riding the loop for the first time.

We kept it tight for the first several laps, warming up, working on our paceline skillz, until 2M got antsy and shot off the front with an over-the-shoulder look that just dared us to try to keep up.

Things quickly exploded after that. Mike and I traded punches at the front (mostly me attacking every other lap or so and Mike easily keeping on my wheel). Conroy and Dillon worked well together just behind. Jimmy kindly rode clean up (sacrificing himself to clear any stray water bottles or power bars that might have been dislodged in the heat of battle). Meanwhile, Kelly dominated the women's field.

With about five laps to go, Mike caught me napping and got a little gap. I let him keep it, for a lap or so, then charged around him with what I hoped was enough speed that he wouldn't be able to hold my wheel. It worked. I was lucky. (I'm sure he won't let me do it again.) And despite Mike recruiting the help of a lapped Conroy, I held on through the last three laps for the W.

Don't let this old man run away with the thing. That isn't the story you want to tell your kids.

Combined Gender Standings After Round #1:

(1) dr goatesauce, 25 pts
(2) 2m, 20 pts
(3) conroy, 16 pts
(4) d grace, 13 pts
(5) jimmy, 11 pts
(6) kelly flantastic, 10 pts

Women's Standings After Round #1

(1) kelly flantastic, 25 pts

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Note the new scoring scheme. Rather than the Fibonacci sequence deal we used in September, I've elected to use a more traditional points scale which awards points to the top 15 riders (it seems unlikely we'll ever have more than 15 riders) like this: 25, 20, 16, 13, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1.

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By my count there are five riders who wanted to be there who weren't for some reason. If we can get a few non-students there, we could easily be running fields of 12-15.

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I was looking at the standings from the 2009 September Starlight Criterium Series (same course, four rounds) and I'm not sure who came out on top. After three rounds the points looked like this:

(1) Mike Maret, 16.5 pts
(2) goatesauce, 16 pts
(3) Jon Marshall, 13.5 pts
(4) Matt C. (Chop), 11 pts
(5) Matt Conroy, 3 pts
(6) Cody Wertz, 3 pts
(7) Alex Krayo, 1 pt
(8) Kevin Melnick, 1 pt

Does anyone remember how it ended?

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Round #2 of the Starlight Circle Race Series is scheduled for Wednesday, May 5, 9:30 pm. Cinco de Mayo, baby.

That said, if there's interest--especially from the folks who will be leaving us over the summer--to throw in one more round next week, Wednesday, April 28, I'm game.