Club Champs - Round 1

Race Report
Location: Heffron Park - Club Championships
Grade: TBC (Gradings for 2009 done off this event)
Race Distance: 2.02km (1 lap)
My Average Speed: 38.05km/hr (3:13 mins)
Placing: TBC
Conditions: Windy, S, headwind down the main finishing straight, but tailwind on the back of the course, consistent, no gusts. Temperature about 23C. Overcast.

Let me start by saying the following - "C'est la vie"....

After getting to Heffron a little earlier than expected, I registered and was 7th on the start list. I went out for my warm-up and did my mandatory 6 laps, getting used to the wind and prevailing conditions. While a bit windy, but atleast consistent with no gusts, the Zipp wheels didn't feel bad and I decided to go for it with them on.
After what I considered a good warm-up, the start time came around, and the first rider set-off. When I rolled up to the start line, the next to start, the time keepers noticed a small problem with the timing, so they delayed my start by about 5 minutes to get this corrected. I was completely focussed, and now I started to cool down and think about other things.
Anyway, after sorting the timing issue, we restarted.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go!
Out of the blocks I felt really good, and started to hammer down the short straight leading into the "squircle". Looking up, there were 10 people walking side-by-side down the track. Yelling at them, they just stopped and looked at me, oblivious to the dangers of me bearing down on them. As I got closer, they still hadn't moved out of the way, and when two kids decided to run across the track, I was forced to brake from a building +40km/hr down to about 18km/hr to miss them. You can imagine the words that came out of my mouth! That section is just so important to set-up for the rest of the lap. Race over....
Getting started again, the angry pills had kicked in, and I got going pretty quick, but the momentum was lost. Down the back straight with the tailwind I could only get up to 45km/hr, and then, entering the front 400m straight into the block headwind, I gave it everything sitting on 38km/hr. At the line, the legs were just turning to jelly, so timed perfectly.
Finish time 3:13. Take off about 5 seconds for the delay and I could have broken my PB of 3:08 done a few years ago in perfectly still conditions.
While I was offered a re-run by the Commisaires, my legs and lungs (pursuiters cough) were just not up to it and so the 3:13 stands. Good thing is, I know I was much faster than that.
"C'est la vie".