After a month-long break from racing due to Ohio's notorious wet and snowy weather, Saturday's sunny weather allowed the Malabar race to take place without a hitch. The temperature hovered around 40 degrees at the start of the race and as usual, the winds were pretty strong all day. Teamroll: was well represented with roughly 10 riders lining up in the various races.
Mark LaYacona, George Conti, Marco Corroto, Woody Barry and me were in the Masters race and the field was the largest we have seen this season. The traditional hill top finish was changed to a flat sprint finish near the start area.
Our field stayed together for the first lap. After the 2nd time up the big hill a moment of indecision by the field allowed a Torelli rider to establish a pretty large gap off the front. Fearing that this gap would stay away a few of us began taking turns working to pull it back and this created a break of about 5 riders that would end up staying away the rest of the race. The work paid off and we caught the break on the flat section a few miles from the finish area.
The final time up the climb another Torelli rider made a perfectly timed attack and both Torelli riders were away and would not be caught. I jumped and worked hard for a few miles to catch the two riders but just didn't have the horsepower today to make it happen. Their attack was a text book move in my book. In hindsight I may have been able to stay with the attack if I had reacted to it more quickly. I finished 3rd which was my best result at Malabar.
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