markking's blog

Jake and I went to Richmond last Saturday to do the GFTL . Good Jr turn out – jake got 6th racing w the 18 and unders . That bean pole needs a hill or two until some muscles and whisker start to kick in .
In the masters race I was in a break w two other fellas for the last half of the race . At times I thought it would stick , then with two to go the hard charging field caught us . I grabbed a wheel at the front and managed 2nd place in the field sprint .

Jake and I made the trip to Baltimore yesterday to do the Kelly Cup . Jake did the Jr race with the 18 year olds . Needless to say it was an adventure – he ended up with a group of younger riders ending up winning the sprint for we’re not quite sure what place . It was good to see so many youngsters up there .

I had to be in Columbia SC for Business on Wed so I drove the extra hour to race in the 3rd Twilight series race and watch Ben . Signed up for both the cat2/3 race and the masters . This course was really fun – ended up getting 3rd in the cat 2 and 7th in the masters race . Ben did a face plant into the curb the night before getting 9 stitches in his shin and a good shiner as he was knocked a little silly . He’s still riding well as Kelly won last night in the 4th race . I really don’t think I like the worry of being a cycling Dad ….ugh . Good luck to all you mountain goats in the morning !

Want to be a rock star ? Do this race ! . If you arent in the invitational you need to qualify for the big show in morning qualifiers , which was one of the most difficult races I’ve done this year . Both Dan and I qualified (by both finishing in the top 10) for the show . Racing in front of 20 or 30,000 screaming maniacs was a hoot although with max heart rate from the gun and eyes popping out of my skull made it tough to enjoy. Dan got 9th , with 2 to go a guy caught a pedal in the 4th corner taking us to the back of the field and it was way too fast to make it back up front again .

One word FRUSTRATING . I raced the 30 plus(w Eric) and cat123 race w my bro last Sat . Jake did the Jr race .
Did everything to create the break in the masters race then missed it…..knuckle head move . Eric did all he could w three to go to see that we could salvage something but unfortunately the break was too big and CRC wasnt there …oh well .
The 123 race was full of Pros and I told Dan I would ride for him …4 guys got away . On the last lap I towed dan to the last turn and he got 2nd in the field sprint . Somewhat rewarding .

Jake King raced the 10-14 and got 2nd . Did the 15-18 and got 5th. Mike Libby rode in a break for much of the race and got 6th in the 50 plus. Scanlon rode like a beast in the 40 plus pulling back breaks and got 5th in the cat 3 race . I got 1st in the 30 plus , 4th in the 40 plus and 8th in the Pro12.

My bro and i went down to Raliegh to do a road race sat and crit on sunday . Unfortunately there were no age graded races so we jumped into the Pro12 race . The rd race was 76 miles . Got in a break 35 miles in with 4 really strong guys ,60 miles in 3 more bridged up ….i thought we would make it until the end . Only about 10 miles from the finish the field caught us ….bummer . I was a little too gassed to sprint and ended up around 15th . Great training….ugh !
Dan finished 3 or so spots ahead of me .

Decided to do the masters race this year since the miles have been few and far between . I “thought” it would be much easier than the pro 1/2 which would have been the case had I sat in and not raced it . Instead it turned into one frustrating, but fun race weekend . There was a decent sized field including two teams that had 5 or 6 riders each consistening of what appeared to be good cat 2’s. I got 3rd in stage one TT and then couldn’t breath in the next two stages without one or two of them sitting on my wheel refusing to work . They rode well together as a team .

Let’s do a good brisk (borderline frisky) ride this Saturday .Base miles are good but it’s healthy to throw in a few good days as well . Hopefully a decent turnout so I never have to get on the front.

Is anyone planning on riding from the shop Sat morn ?