Steve Marlette was the only Team member to race this past weekend's Mingo Road Race. Despite his preference for Individual Time Trials, Steve was forced to race the open roads because the Washington Blvd Track was being repaved!
Nevertheless,
Steve made a good showing, sticking with the lead group of the Master's 45+ field through 7 laps of climbing, finishing in
6th place.
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Here is a quick story by Skip Rogers about the final turn:
We were very nice to Mr. Marlette. He watched five of us, well mostly four of us, take pulls for 30+ miles, seven laps of Mingo. There was some rumor as to whether Steve was going to come around at the end at take win in the final sprint. With 200 meters to go, we were all watching each other, wondering who was going to blink first. Steve moved forward, the gears got to banging, and away we went!
At the next to last turn no one yelled "right turn", and Steve kept going straight! He showed that TT people like to point, and shoot. Steve has been at the WB Oval so much he does not know a bike can turn right!
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and here is the story from Steve's point of view :)
At the start of the race I new I had no chance against the other teams. As I may have mentioned, I can't sprint and a solo break away was not likely to work with these guys.
When they slowed down to see who would take the lead on the last lap my only concern was that my heart rate was dropping. So I figure what the heck, I will drag them up to the line and at least get in a good workout. I just missed the turn because I was not paying good attention after looking back to see if everyone was still on my tail. I should have not bothered to look – of course everyone was there.
I also learned that these guys take the turns faster than I do, so I should not have been at the front in the first place until we got through all the sharp turns. I did get a pretty good workout since I had to continually bridge the gap after every turn (including the one I missed).
