GRATTAN LAST LAP OBSTACLES

It was a sign. Somewhere in the middle of the race there was a wounded bird on the track. Lap after lap it struggled to get  away from the rush of wheels to die in peace in the grass. I had decided on the next lap I'd stop and put it out of its misery, but it disappeared. Instead on the last lap at Grattan, coming out of the off-camber, simply screaming with speed, there was something in the road ahead trying to put me out of my misery, sending me into a slithering crash-defying skid. While it wasn't a giant boulder, it might just have well have been. It was just another body, this time human, spread-eagled on the deck, blank eyes looking up into the sky, cold-cocked. I wished I had a camera. It would have made a great the poster for this season. When you're flying along, a body and a bike laying on the floor looks just like this, I kid you not.

The only thing worse than running into the "track obstruction" was watching the sprint up the road at the end of the lap. The form of the sprint last night looked something like some kind of many-legged monster, twisting in agony and lashing out at anything that came close to it. Yes kids, that's right, the B sprint now look like a giant octopus jerking itself off. Go anywhere near it and you'll be ensnared in its deadly grip and crushed, or get something sticky all over you.

And while you can only hope that the road rash from tangling with the octosprint will just ink-up the victims and look something  like this ...
... chances are it will probably look more like this when you wake up in the ER:

There are so many riders I'd like to thank for sharing, with the group, some of  the worst examples of bicycle riding I've ever seen l, there just isn't room or time here to list you all. And while I could say "but you know who you are," I got a feeling that you really don't.  The good news is that between accidents and survival instinct the group has come down to 34 riders from its usual near 60 count. In a few weeks, who knows, about eight? Should be plenty of room for a sprint then, boys and girls.