Departure for UK and last night of CVA

I'm sitting in the airport with about one hour before my journey to the UK begins.  I will fly from San Francisco to Atlanta, and then on to Manchester, arriving around breakfast time on Thursday morning.  It appears the flight will be quite full, so I may have to gate-check my backpack.

Here is a picture taken in the Atlanta airport by an exhibit for "jook houses", a social gathering place by and for American Blacks in the rural south:

Over the last few weeks, things have been hectic and I have not posted a blog update, so there are several stories for me to write down in order to catch up.  A quick preview of the stories:
The end of the CVA summer track racing season
A week spent piloting a tandem at the Olympic Training Center
Meeting a strange cyclist in Boulder
Driving to Los Angeles for track nationals
Racing track nationals!!
Heading to the bay area for a couple days before leaving for the UK

The CVA summer track racing season ended on Thursday, September 9th.  We ended up having four events; a 1-mile handicap race, a Miss-n-out, a 50-lap points race, and an invitational Australian pursuit.  The handicap race was a little disappointing as I was one spot short of qualifying for the final.  The miss-n-out was slightly (but not much) better.  I sat up front for the beginning of the race, but then had no jump when it came time to accelerate.  I think I ended up 6th place there.  The points race went well, though.  Before the start, I told myself that I would be patient, sit in, and only put in real efforts if I knew I could take 1st or 2nd place points.  For the first couple point laps, I just sat in and followed wheels, but then started attacking and taking maximum points.  At the end I was in first place with an insurmountable lead (which I didn't realize), but since I did not realize that was how the race had played out, I went charging hard to chase down a late attack by Ryan Luttrell with three laps to go.  He gapped the pack, I reacted and gapped the pack, and I chased after him for the last three and a half laps, bringing back about a bike length or so, and taking 2nd place points at the finish.  It turned out I didn't need those points, but it always feels good to bury myself at the end of the last endurance event of the regular season.

The final event, the Australian pursuit, turned into a three-way battle among Charlie, Danny, and Kevin.  Charlie eventually won with a late sprint for the line against Danny.  It was a terrific end to the summer season in Colorado Springs.