roadcx.net

The snow held off enough to allow the Marx & Bensdorf spring (winter?) training race to occur this morning. Despite the lack of snow the morning the conditions were in the mid to upper 30’s with occasional very light rain (at the start of the A-race).

The first race was the B-race at 9am. Andrea lined up with 29 guys (her report) to race the 6 lap, ~31 mile race over a lightly rolling course with a 1 mile 3-4% finishing climb each lap. My team (Memphis Velo) was well represented and it yielded a victory for new MV member Todd Hickman.

The A-race started at 11:30am, which pushed our luck on the weather a little bit… It started to rain a little bit at the start, but that didn’t last thankfully. At the start, it was clear I had a small problem. As the only MV in the group with 4 M&B racers lined up, it looked like it might be a long race.

So, I decided to see if I could go up the road with one of them. I attacked the hill on the first lap to see what would happen. I was pulled back. On the second lap, Russ Griffin rode away solo and I didn’t cover it. Whether it was him or anyone else, the result was the same, now it was either attack / try to bridge or slave away at the front with Boomer and Will. I tried both.

Russ held about 1-2 minute lead for middle part of the race. On lap 6, Boomer and Funston rode away from Will and I on the hill. They caught Russ with one to go with me chasing behind. The race was cut to 8 laps due to threatening weather moving into the area. I finished the race with 3 laps (about 15 miles) at threshold or better most of the time. I ended up 4th making $30 against my $15 entry. Not a bad day.

(despite the low stakes of the race today, I wanted to test out my new rims/tubies. Reynolds DV46T with Conti Competitions)

Here is the gallery link for the race. I took the B-race photos and Andrea took the A-race photos for obvious reasons.

—————————-

After the race, most of the A-race and some others hit Mezcal for some Mexican food and a little beer (maybe we had food with our beer). While we where there, the weather turned to sleet and then snow. By the time Andrea and I made the drive from Arlington to Cordova, there was ~1″ of accumulation on the lawns and streets. Winter is not quite done yet I guess.

(snow covered bike after taking it off the roof rack)

(Turbo in the backyard investigating the snow. More photos on Andrea’s blog.)