McKinney Velo at the Joe Martin SR - Masters A Field

McKinney Velo ventured to Arkansas last weekend for a national caliber event (the Joe Martin Stage Race) against a national caliber masters field and proved MV can compete with the region's best. Russ Emerson 'Fitipaldi', Jeff 'Big Ring' Fene, 'Smokin' Joe Howard, the Seabass Brad Price and Steve 'Oz' Weber tackled the 3 stage Joe Martin Masters A field and helped Joe land a spot on the 2nd step of the 50+ podium, with a 4th place overall finsih in the combined 40+/50+ event. The JMSR begins with a 2.5 mile uphill TT. Eventual Masters A winner Janne Hamalainen (Tulsa Tough) proved to be the class of the field with his :29 TT victory. Howard settled in at 4th just :02 behind 3rd (Frank Jakofcich - OKC Velo) and :10 behind 2nd (Peter Beland - BMC/Walmart). Although the time gaps would increase slightly, that's how the overall combined GC would look after Saturday's 75 mile very hilly road race and Sunday's brutal crit... forced to battle the start/finish hill shown in the picture above each lap, only 17 Masters A racers were left to contest the crit finish. Despite the tough race conditions and strong field, MV kept Smokin' Joe out of trouble and ushered him to a 2nd place overall GC finish in the 50+ filed behind Janne H. Well done boys!