markking's blog

Jake rocked CRC colors in Suffolk . There was a good sized Jr 10-14 field . Jake got away with one other fella who was quite good and won the two up sprint . He then did the 15-18 race finshing 4th .
DD got 2nd in the womens race after towing a break around all day and Bill and I had two great races . see ya tuesday ….....

CRC racer Jake King grabbed two bronze metals last weekend in the 18 and under Junior races at the wolfpack classic . The rest of team King (Me ,Ben & Dan) had a blast in the Pro12 races .

Rumor has it some of you are riding today . You are truly diesel . I just checked the thermometer – North Garden -1 F . Just call me a wimp …........

Went to Petersburg Sunday to wrap up the year at a wayyyyyy to hot crit (especially after spending two weeks freezing in Alaska) . The masters race split on the 2nd lap , then on the 4th lap a group with Dan , Collins , K Johnson and me ended up with around 30 seconds . We lapped the field with around twenty to go and the started beating up on one another . dan and I were taking turns jumping ….i got caught at 10 to go and he went but unfortunately the other two made it across to him . I wound up 4th . The 123 was a race of attrition in the heat …I think I wound up 12th .

My big rear end certainly wasn’t so aggressive on such a hilly course . The race was one of attrition as a each lap attacks on the toughest of the two climbs caused big splits in the field . At around 20 miles to go a group of three rolled off the front with 9 of us chasing . There was a small field of probably 10 chasing us that at that point. With around three miles left I got away with two other fellas and we held it until the end as Dan aggravated the chase …. man , i was glad that was over .

I had a mtg in Milwaukee last thurs so I did a couple of the superweek races and finished up racing with (behind) Chris Horner and Fred Rodriguez in a ProAm in downtown Chicago . The superweek races were really fast with around 100 riders in each field . I was in the money ….not quite enough to pay for gas .

Jake , after not riding for a couple of weeks , did the Jr race finishing 4th is a shattered field .

Wow , that was fun . Stayed at Grandma Kings @ Smith Mountain Lake with the fam . Ben , Dan ,Jake and I raced in Roanoke . I raced 30 plus , 40 plus and 123 Friday getting 5th , 4th and 16th . Jake did the Jr race and won his age group .
Saturday Jake won the 18 and under cat up Mill Mountain and I think I ended up 3rd in the masters field, 2 plus minutes behind Ben who was second overall behind his teammate Nick Waite.

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 .