After getting knocked silly on the first night, I was back for more on the second. There was a slightly shorter set of races tonight with 2 madisons and an elimination for me, and a points race for Brad. My body seems to have come out of the crash fairly well, and while I still had something of a headache, the only nagging issues on the bike were some pain below my ribs, a bruise under my right knee, and a stiff neck. Considering how hard I went down, it's not too bad.
In the first chase (100 laps, sprints every 10) the power was full on. Symmetrics and Slipstream were still pounding away in the big gears (93+), while most of the rest of us were in either an 88 or a 90. This pretty much set the tone for the rest of the night. I went up to a 90, which seemed to help. Any bigger and I would have gotten bogged down, but it was still an improvement. Brad elected to stay in his 88 and spin like a madman. Seeing as we started yesterday at 15 laps down and in last place, we didn't really have anything we needed to defend. With that in mind, a little cadence work at the expense of race results (which are far gone at this point anyways) seems prudent.
We rode better on the whole last night. Our exchanges were smoother and more powerful, we took some sprint points, and lost few laps. Oh, we didn't crash either, which made me happy. Despite the crash, I felt far better last night than I did on the first night. Traveling and not getting to ride the day before a race really seems to mess me up.
Now my arms are achy from throwing and my legs are tired, but if that's the worst, I consider it lucky. There were a few more crashes last night, and Friedman and Williams took quite the trip to the ground, but they're both back up and riding quickly. There was also a really funny shouting match between a pair of riders after the crash. It lasted a couple laps, and even had them riding next to each other, one hand off the bars gesturing, and all the while cursing a blue streak that would have embarrassed a pirate. I love bike racing. We even managed to climb to 10th (out of 12) in the standings! Time for an amazing comeback.