Snelling, et al...

It's been awhile, and there is much to say...

Snelling, ah Snelling. This year the t-shirts were correct-Snelling instead of Senling. No collector's items, but we did get a few t-shirts... five to be exact. In the Junior 15/16 race the kidlets sent Garden up the road with Joel Shaffer of the AMD Junior Team. With AMD and DBCJRT in the break, the chase was left to Tieni Duro among others. A classic case of too little horse power and/or unorganized chases let the break stick, and Garden came out on top in the race to the line... first t-shirt! With fresh legs after the free ride in the group, Laundry easily won the field sprint and El Gigante battled his way to fourth in the mass gallop home. 1,3,6... not bad, three total t-shirts! Todd Stone and PtotheArker joined the march in the Junior 17/18 race with Todd just missing a t-shirt, finishing 7th. PtotheArker finished with the group. Dishes and the Tapinator also turned the pedals in anger... unofficial results have Dishes finishing 5th in the junior 13/14 race (t-shirt number 5) and the Tapinator finished shortly after the group in the 15/16's.

Davitamon, AWfoSho, and TK turned the pedals in the elite fields, Davitamon and AwfoSho in their last Elite 3 category race, TK mixed it up with the prosies in the Pro/1/2 race. The 3's saw Davitamon finish in the 2 spot after planting himself in a late break. AWfoSho frustrated the field with his blocking to help Davitamon stay away... end result, t-shirt number four and well timed Cat 2 upgrades for both AWfoSho and Davitamon. I'm sure the career three's will be happy to see the DBCJRT jocks upgraded... TK fought thru the gutter to finish with the main group in his own personal hell as the pros did 86 miles in 2 hours 50 minutes... if my math is correct, that is nearly 30 miles per hour on the average.

Fast forward one week, same general local... Merco, formerly McLane, weekend.

Bumps and bruises were the theme for the weekend... El Gigante hit the deck early in the junior race, calmly took his free lap, and finished second in the rush of the 15/16's to cross the line first. Garden finished just behind him to take the third spot. Meanwhile the 17/18 crowd took their proverbial bumps and bruises in their version of the same race. AWfoSho, Davitamon, TK and Todd Stone did their best to get somebody up the road, all the while knowing that a bunch finish did not bode well for them with Justin Williams in the race. Alas, none of their attacks would stick and the race came down to that dreaded field sprint... AWfoSho had William's wheel until the last corner while TK kept the pace high... but... as soon as TK pulled off, the pace dropped and the dreaded swamping took place... in the mayhem AWfoSho lost William's wheel and didn't even contest the sprint... probably the first time the kiddos haven't been in the top ten in a very long time.

Davitamon took the bumps for the boys in Sunday's Road Race, ending up on the bottom of a pile on the last lap of a 96 mile road race. A few miles later TK nearly did the same as he jockeyed for position in the charge to the line... fortunately, he only dropped his chain and din't actually touch pavement.

The good news coming out of the Merco weekend is that DBCJRT holds the top three spots in the 15/16 point series... El Gigante in first, Garden in second, and Laundry in third... can you say dominance?