The Ault Park magic is back. Though the skies looked ominous just an hour before, the clouds are gone, it is sunny yet cool. As has become my habit, I am taking photos for the Queen City Wheels web page. The first race of the evening, the race for those in the lower categories, went off without a hitch for the fourteenth year. I am happy to report that riders from QCW finished first and third.

Now it is a bit darker and the top-category cyclists are whirring smoothly yet intensely around the Observatory grounds. The field for this race includes several local cyclists that hope to compete in the Elite Nationals later this month. Eric Knight, Adam Krause, and O'Brian Forbes are near the front. Jeff McLane is riding cautiously in the back, his first race since breaking a collarbone and a few ribs in a nasty training accident.

The planning for the Nationals is going well, by the way. The only hitch has been that Loveland's neighbors have been a bit cool on closing roads for the Time Trial event. Loveland may be the center of cycling in the area, but the cyclists, when not on the trail, ride on the roads of the neighboring towns. We cyclists need to be as kind as possible to the residents of those towns if Loveland is to become a National Cycling Center. Anyway, a course should be finalized by the time you read this.

What's that sound down past the Rose Gardens? It sounds like a crash - pedals, handlebars, helmets and hard-soled cycling shoes clattering and scraping across pavement - but if it is, it must be a terrible crash. The awful sound goes on forever. Here come the cyclists up the hill, some of them anyway, all strung out. Chip Ellington passes by and says in a strangely subdued voice "Big crash, Curt." I walk down to the fast corner where someone apparently maneuvered a bit too aggressively.

Eric Knight is moving, but he's covered with road rash. Another cyclist is being helped to the grass; another racer, a doctor, has stopped to help. O'Brian Forbes - who normally gives the impression of the Tasmanian Devil - is shuffling across the road in a shredded jersey, with a badly slumping shoulder. They say there are only two kinds of cyclists: those who have broken their collarbones, and those who haven't yet.

Cycle racing combines some features of running and automobile racing. It is pure human power given some mechanical advantage. There is a great deal of thinking and concentrating to do while maneuvering in a pack. The sense of speed and momentum is strong and, as demonstrated at Ault Park tonight, the danger - moderate danger as long as you wear a helmet.

Jeff McLane avoided the crash, loosened the corset around his ribs, and finished second in the final sprint. The Ault Park series continues tonight and for the next five Wednesdays. First race is at 7:00.

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Curt Austin maintains the web pages for the Queen City Wheels at www.qcw.org and can be reached at curt@AustinImage.com.