Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Awesome Race for the Boys From Ship

Sunday's State Championship Road Race proved to be most exciting. The race was 66 miles over a painful course that featured 900 feet of climbing per 13 mile lap.
On lap 4 Mr. Michael Maret found himself in a 4 man breakaway that looked as though it had the potential for success. To solidify the success of the group Mr. Jonathan Marshall, single handedly, left the peloton and bridged the sizable gap to the breakaway.
Jon has enough points to upgrade to the category 3 that he will need in order to race in the A's for next years collegiate season while Mike does not. However, a great finish in a race like this would most likely give USA cycling the incentive they need to give him the upgrade anyway. Jon knew this and willingly sacrificed his body and chances of winning in order to help secure the win for Mike.
The two ship boys worked together in the breakaway with Jon taking massive pulls and basically just giving it everything he had.
In the end only two survived the insane pace of the breakaway. Mike was able to hang on and an epic battle took place for the win. Unfortunately he could not overtake the other rider and finished in second place.
Mike finished 8 seconds behind the winner and a full minute ahead of the main group. With roughly 500 meters to go Jon was swallowed up, having done his duty as a team mate, and ultimately finished in 21st place.
An awesome finish for Mike (congratulations) and an amazing race to both men. This tale of their conquest seems to be taken right out of story book. Myself and the rest of us here on the Ship team are wicked proud of you guys and as a team you will be unstoppable in the next collegiate season. Personally, I can't wait to see you guys dominate.

1 comment:

Chop said...

You guys are my heroes!!! Great race guys. I love it when all the hard work pays off.