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Yesterday, the Marx & Bensdorf cycling team hosted another training race up on the short 5 mile loop north of Arlington. The course is lightly rolling with a 3/4 mile or so hill up to the finish. For us in the 1/2/3, it meant going up it 10 times for a total of just over 50 miles.

The field was fairly small with 12-13 starting. M&B had 6 at the start and Memphis Velo, we had 2 of the racers in the field. The rest of the field was made up of lone riders from various teams from the region.

I knew that with so many riders, M&B would be looking to put someone up the road and if I could do anything about it, I needed to be one of them. The first lap saw some attacks from various teams but nothing got very far. On the second lap Robby from M&B rolled off a bit and bridged up to him and past him hoping to get something going…. When he didn’t pull through I suspected that it was a no go, but I waited up at a corner by taking it pretty slow. The second time not coming through (or even staying with me) made me realize that it wasn’t the proper break so I shouldn’t expect any help … I rode it out up the hill at my own pace and was back with the rest over the top.

On the third time up the hill, there was an attack (not sure exactly who started it), but it ended up with a TriStar (Tower), Herring (Moak), and two M&B (Parker and Funston) getting clear. Aaron ended up dropping back after a 1/2 lap or so, leaving the rest to gain time. The time checks were pretty random, but the gap grew to about a minute by 5th or 6th lap. Then the rains came. I expected that given the radar and forecast, but it usually takes a few minutes to sort it out and get soaked before you can just get on with racing.

Onward we pushed into the driving rain and started to get serious about pulling the break back in laps 6 or 7, when we heard the gap was at 30 seconds. When it is raining hard, I would much rather pull into it than be trying to draft and not run into back wheel of another with fogging glasses and road spray. I think it was on the 8th time up the hill we caught up with Funston dropping back from the other two leaders. This meant that for at least for a while, we were off the hook and putting M&B at the front to chase. And they did. We caught the two leaders at the top of the 9th time up the hill leaving us all together (albeit with a smaller group by then – we were down to 7).

On one of the smaller hills about a third of the way around the final lap, a Kodak Galleries rider (no name, sorry) attacked off solo. We pretty much didn’t give it much chance and let him build up a gap. Funston and then me did some pulls late in the lap, but he was not to be caught. The other 4 riders in between powered up the hill leaving Bryant and me behind for 6th and 7th. I am pretty sure that Matt ended up in 5th position.

As for the race, we didn’t get a real great result, but I was pleased how Matt and I worked together to change the way the race played out. Should we have pulled earlier and harder on the last lap? Sure, in hindsight that is clear, but we didn’t, so the solo rider was able to take the “W”. And we ended up going home with slightly more $$ than we put in ($70 for 5th overall and 3rd/4th in Cat3 versus the $60 in entry fees). Just a little gas money for the trouble.

After my race, I stayed and took some photos of the Category 5, Masters 50+, and women’s races. They are in a mixed (chronological) order, but it is pretty much self evident which are which. Andrea ended up taking second after a good hill leadout for Casey. Their race was sort of odd that it was completely an intrasquad race for the recently formed M&B women’s cycling team.

link to Photo gallery