Recap

Ok, I've been slacking too. Well, we've done the Wenatchee Omnium and I even got BARR points in the mens 1/2. That's a sure sign of my sights being lowered, It's a major acheivement to even get BARR points in the 1/2s! I was 13th overall and 3 guys were not WSBA members, in the back door too.
I was rather upset though that I could not get up to Kenny on the climb in the RR to try to help him defend his lead, he's climbing well, but not well enough to keep the overall, he ended up 3rd, not too shabby.

I decided to do masters in Enumclaw, but was sorry to see only 20 riders in the combined A/B field. Once again Matt Hill smoked me in the TT, he's riding really well right now (I hope!) . The crit was something else, with 4 laps to go Matt flatted (no free laps after 5 to go) sorry Matt, let's not go crazy and give him a chance to catch back. I see him being put back in the pack next time around??? What's going on? He is now a lap down, so I'll have a good lead tomorrow, three to go, I can just take it easy and stay safe no prizes for the finish, disaster....I flat race over, both Matt and I are 2 mins down almost, maybe we can make it up in the RR??

Matt and I plan to just race hard, but nobody else is interested in racing, except Arnie Laiti and he rolls off after the climb, and some attacking from Dave Hecht,Matt and I. Nobody chases al the way down the highway, dang were not even pedalling!!!! Arnie later said he wasn't planning on making a big effort there, but when nobody went after him he decided to give it a go. He gave it a good go as we never caught him and he won overall, fair play. Behind everyone was content to watch Matt and Mick attack, counter attack and chase whomever went up the road. Matt finally gave up and hammered the whole last lap ( nobody even tried to help him!) on the front, I was not going to bring Arnie back for someone else to reap the win, Arnie deserved it for being willing to ride hard. Matt just pulled off at the bottom of the hill and I rode a good tempo until I saw it ws just Dave Hecht behind me, so I went for it. Dave let me get 2nd on the day, and he won the Masters B, way to go Dave, you're strong like Bull.

I ended up 6th overall, dissapointing, but I live to go to work this week without any hospital bills, and anticipate a really tough Mt Hood stage race in two weeks. Next Sunday is Ski to Sea in Bellingham for me, that's always fun. I've got a new team and we're, to quote my spouse, "Stoked"(different meaing, of course) about the race!

Slan, Mick

Masters State RR

Well, back to back State Champs!! And another one next week!

This time it was Masters RR, I think our field was small because it was so wet in the morning, which didn't stop Martha from winning her race. In a sprint, no less!!

Back to our race,We did 5 laps of the 10.5 mile loop. Surprisingly to me, all of the Excel guys that could, rode the B race, so that took an aggressive factor from our field, but not to worry Doug Davis was there to animate the race as he always does.
I was suffering really badly early on and felt like I couldn't get enough air on the climbs, then on lap two, guys started to roll off the front. Luckily Carl Roberts had it covered for us, then when the gap got big enough Kenny launched and soloed across the 45 second? gap. That decimated the field, though I did manage to claw on to the second group, and was just thankful I had two teammates in the break, of 6.

The next two laps I was able to sit on the back of the group while Kenny rode away from the break and three more came back to us, then with about a lap to go we caught Carl and Alan Wiley, so it was just Kenny up the road.

I covered a few attacks and made a couple of my own, as I was starting to feel better, but I was not feeling so super and was maybe a little bit guilty about sitting on all that time, so we came to the finish, a group of seven sprinting for second. Well I'm no Martha when it come to sprinting these days ;-) so I ended up 6th.

I must say I was impressed with the riding of the Axley USA Team, they worked their butts off all day, and were totally committed to Helping Mark K get 2nd, which he did with seemingly easy. Michael Emde and Mike Pruitt gave their all, despite Michael being defending champion, he gave up his chances for Mark on the last lap, making sure nothing got away, way to go guys, If only all teams rode like that.

Now it's on to Wenatchee for that killer hill!!

Oh, yes I think Ben got to go home from hospital today after his crash on saturday :-) and I also hear Steve Holland punctured a lung on top of all his other injuries, so he's got another couple of days in Hospital. Our best wishes go out to both of them.

Mick

State RR

Just a short note on the Wa State Senior Mens RR.
It was a very well gaurded pack that hit the finish together, nothing got more than 15 seconds up the road??? Wierd!!
The sad notes on this race are two seperate crashes, one was Steve Holland breaking a collarbone and some ribs according to reports. Then Ben Kaplan crashed on the first right hand bend on the farm road, broke his leg, It was ugly, my head was not in it after that, as we were stopped there on the last lap, with about 7? miles to go.

Oh, Yeah Kenny Won, from a galant Rob Campbell. It was close I hear!!

Masters State RR tomorrow ; - ) Lets try to keep everyone upright.....please.