Thanks to help from Zach and Alex, who went on to race the Concord Crit, I managed to get up to the NEV to get some track back into my blood with their matched sprint tourney.  It was a small but highly determined (and speedy!) group of racers with some close rides and odd-ball three-ups in the early sessions.  In the final round, I went best-of-three with the US Hour Record holder (Men’s 50-54), Mike Pavlov, who was visiting NEV. In the first round, I took the obligation to lead the first lap, and attempted to slow Mike down to a reasonable speed by setting my bars in front of his and pushing him up to the wall… which Mike didn’t seem to notice. A true competitor, Mike held his line solidly and pushing back.  I got him at the end, though I’m not entirely sure how.  In the second round, Mike took the obligation and immediately took the speed up to his time trial spin. He dodged uptrack with 250m to go and I pulled under, with enough advantage to finish the race with a dodgy spin “around” the sprinter’s lane.  Either way, we were both tired, but hopefully managed to give the spectators a good finish to the day’s racing.  A big thanks to the New England Velodrome, Tony Eberhart, Mike Pavlov, and the rest of the Saturday racers.