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