LVRC/MKCA Circuit Races Round 15

So that's it then, the last road race for me anyway of 2013. The day brought the now customary good weather and with it good numbers. And was especially good to see some old friends back for the last race.
Tonight's race format was the usual, half an hour racing the inner oval, then out through the gates and into the twists and turns for the last half hour plus. And tonight was anti clockwise, just how I like it.
Soon we were off and settled into the familiar steady starting pace. Pretty well everyone hangs on here, but of the forty or so only about ten of us do any work. So at about twenty minutes it was time to get things going. Here come the Belgians...straight down the outside and keep going. It's a signature  move and slightly suicidal, but as long as I can fall back in I know it's safe to do it. One lap on the front and I swing out to let someone else take up the work. Someone else goes and I fall safely in.Now the pace is higher, a few are falling off the back. We are now racing.

The field cut to size

We then get the 'Gates open' next lap and there's the usual frantic push to be near the front to ensure the safest passage through the tight turn. We all squeeze through in such style it brings applause from the marshals. The 'gates' have cut the numbers further, a quick head count makes it thirteen, so a top ten isn't out.
We race tightly, the strongmen are trying to use the series of turns to drop riders, but we're staying together.
Then up comes the three laps to go sign and with it a slight drop in the pace. I'm pretty happy with were I am, nothing splits me from the guys on the front yet I know that the winner will be one of the first through the turns. Five single file turns spit you onto the finishing straight, so you have to be up there to stand a chance. I move right up to the front before we hit them, but we're all thinking the same and the group is three abreast.
Then BOOM through the gates, a rider in front of me over cooks a turn and skids the back wheel. I brake and dive under him and four go past me. Into the straight and I catch three. The LVRC only count the first three, but I estimate my position at worst 10th.
So yep that's it for another year. It's off to the Pyrenees now for a week. Then a few training rides before the cross season starts.