Author: Geraint Parry

Like the elephant sitting in the corner, the upcoming MMSFRR is difficult to ignore for those of us who plan on tackling it both for MAG7 points or just for the ‘fun’ of it! Therefore as this weeks worlds were planned as the forest loop we took advantage and rode Bean Blossom the hard way (upward). There was a smallish group for the ride this week but that didn’t stop the pace picking up well as we rolled onto Anderson road. However as we approached BB the pace slackened slightly until A.Frsyka (know as the ‘attacker’) kept the pace decent. On the climb Ren-jay gave it some stick and a small group went away. Those of us further back were grateful for mssrs Kehrberg and Cox keeping it steady and then helping us back to the front. A regrouping and a steady paceline ensued all through the forest and up Hindustan. Back onto Anderson the racing began again as ‘attacker’ and Myron Lewis held off the rest of the pack for the best part of the road. Onto BB a general truce was called and our group was marshalled at a reasonable pace up the hill….all except ‘attacker’ who once again put in a big effort up the hill. This sadly was the last we’d see of ‘attacker’ as once the group bridged it was sayonara and goodbye as the ‘man with the hammer’ was observed to be hitting Mr Fryska about the head!
The attacks started in the Forest and the pace was high troughout until the expected showdown occurred on Hinudstan where Kehrberg and Caughlin rocketed off of the front. The remaining turtles and one or two others got together in a fierce paceline mostly driven by M.Brauner who proceeded to blow more than one of us off of the back…on the downhill! Alas the two escapees stayed away until the finish but all who rode got in a good workout in preperation for the race on June 25th. Sadly on that day it’ll be 4 laps and not 2. Ouch!

Thunder and lightening in the vicinity couldn’t hold back about 20 riders from tackling the 446 loop. The weather didn’t turn out too bad in fact- we got pelted with rain for about a lap and then it got sunnyr….which all amounted to us all looking pretty tuff in soggy jerseys and darkened faces.
The riding was hard and fast with no-where to hide all evening. The first 4 laps largely saw the group stay together until finally Chris and Mike K got off the front and started cruising away from the group. Round the top turn the pace in the group picked up and suddenly it all went to sh-t for a few of us. A gap opened up and quick as a flash Tom S, Heff, Karim and an already struggling GP were off the back and gone! The following laps saw three different groups working out the full 8 lap distance. Kroll again showed that his form has once taken another leap this year as him and Kehrberg held a 10-20sec gap over the ‘bunch’ of Sonny, Bauer. K.Moore, Steve B and new guy in town, Myron. All were working hard but couldn’t bring reel the Kroll-berg tandem in! GP was fortunate to get a tow round in the third group by mssrs Saccone and Brauner both of whose form is bubbling under nicely for challenges that lie ahead. All in all another good workout which after all is what its all about! Next week- Paragon

So at 6am it was 45F and raining- not the greatest conditions to motivate getting out of bed and racing a bike (alone and for 40km). However I’d been psyching myself up for the Monrovia 40k for the last week so I got up and drove up to the meeting place a convienient 45mins from Bloomington. Six other brave souls were present including 4 other debutants- pretty remarkable on such a nasty day. By the time of the start we did have some good fortune as the rain had stopped and the new very fast road surface was mostly dry. All in all it was a pretty good TTing day with a light headwind on the outward leg and the damp road reducing rolling resistance theorectically making things faster. It was a trip into the unknown for me as it was my first ‘25’ since the 1995 BUSA championships (British Universities Sports Association). Therefore I took it pretty easy on the way out (for which the uphill and headwind helped) and then tried to pick it up on the way back. I has a modest goal of a 1h05m so was pleased by posting a 1h04m30s for 4th place on the day. I was certainly glad to get out and ride after too many days of rain and maybe (maybe) I’ll go again later in the year.