Race/Ride Reports

Merco Road Race

Merced, CA

Posted: Sunday, March 2, 2008

MBRT had another great weekend at the races up at the Merco Foothills Road Race. After a brutal race on the wind swept fields of Snelling, every slight leaf flutter left our legs shivering in fear! However, the weather held out and conditions were great for the race. Jim, Alan and Len teamed up in the 35+ cat 4 race and worked hard to get Jim into another top ten performance. Jim showed he can finish with the best of them and placed 6th in a large 100-man field sprint. This is Jim's third top 10 finish of the year and he should be upgrading soon; we had heard rumors of sandbagging, but we could not confirm them as of this report. Doug had to battle the 35+ 1,2,3 field by himself after Ken came down with a hard case of the flu. He was determined to redeem himself in the 75-mile race after a serious butt whooping the week before at Snelling. Doug managed a solid 7th place in a crazy field sprint that seemed to last 5km. Dean raced with the 45+ crowd and again showed how good of a sprinter he can be against tough competition. Dean placed 17th in this tough field.

Doug and Jim pocketed a whopping $40 in prize money, so if we combine that with the collection of T-shirts and other cash prizes from Cantua, we may need to hire a team accountant. In the mean time we will just put it toward gas money to get us to next weeks race.

See you on the Road!

MBRT RACE RESULTS

Masters 35+ Cat 1/2/3

Doug Philippone 7th place

Masters 45+ Cat 1/2/3/4

Dean Knudsen 17th place

Masters 35+ Cat 4

Jim Ivey 6th place
Alan Ediger 28th place
Len Tabor 81st place