Low turnout for the early ride today. Maybe about 35 guys and gals rolled out for one of the last few remaining Throwdowns.
Some notable missing:
Mike McG
Joe Kubisek
J Hacker
Tall John
Nerac
French Casey
But we did get to ride along with Anthony Parent from Anthem. Great to see him out.
With a small group, everyone was going to have bring their "A" game or else things were sure to split up.
Parent, got things started with a strong surge on North Brooksvale Rd. Peter P and Hunter P from Anthem and Chris C and Todd H from Stage 1 were marking him well. The pace was good running up til Mountain Rd. Parent did know about the turn and had to double back a bit. Hunter P saw this and held up for his teammate. Chris Butler from Epic Velo was in the back too and sat up when Hunter asked him to wait. By the time the 3 got together they were 100 yards back. No one was waiting in the field and it actually sped up a bit. In the field Keltic rider Eric Merrill and Target Training were driving it along. The 3 had their work cut out for them but managed to slowly close the gap by the light on West Main. Lots of burned matches for all of them.
Onto Moss farms where the pace came down a bit. Turning onto Jarvis was slower than usual and there was not too much acceleration upto the Marion corner. Turning onto Knotter and into the industrial park, things got going again a bit. but pretty much all the riders were able to stay in and the pace was reasonable. Toward the end of Knotter the pace was too slow for Julio L, who decided to go off on his own, that got things going a bit.
Going up the hill on West Johnson going toward Reinhard, Hunter P put in a attack, that drew out Chris C and Julio L and one other rider (!?). They got a small gap going but were caught as we all dipped into the little valley on Reinhard. Anthony Alessio then attacked up the hill and guys were digging deep to get up the hill fast.
Nothing really huge happened up till Route 10, and that's when the ride became the Anthony and Anthony show. First up was Parent, flying up Rt 10 by Cheshire Park (location for CheshireCross07, register now!). He rounded up Gregg F from Epic and Hunter P and set off with his head down. The rest of the ride was able to get on their wheels tho.
Next up was Alessio, who pretty much destroyed everyone, on the now regular intermediate sprint point, up the Stop and Shop hill. The peleton was able to stay together but traffic in the middle of town would make it difficult for some.
Parent then decided to go as fast as possible thru the second half of Cheshire. Guys like Chris C, Ron Fantano, Hunter P, Chris B and Eric M were along for the ride and did their part to keep the speed really fast. By the time all the traffic lights were past, there was a group of about 7 guys that had split from the rest of the field. Cars and lights helped make the split happen, and most were left to chase hard. Dillon P from Epic and a Target Training (!?) rider always had the lead group in sight, but were never going to be able to pull them back. There were others who got caught even further back.
Then to seal the deal, Alessio pretty much rode away from the rest of them coming up to Shepard Ave in Hamden. No sprint needed. Only a couple were able to keep him close. Def one of the more stronger finishes we have seen in a while.
Great ride with a different twist, being smaller in number. Going thru town earlier, with increased traffic was a downer tho.
Next week will be at 5:30 again until we hear otherwise. Maybe one more week is possible before its too dark at 6:45......?
Anyone not racing in Eastern CT on sunday should check out the Sunday morning Sleeping Giant ride. This past week's ride was great (and fast).
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