"We won't get rained on"..."The rain will miss us"
The sun was shining nicely as the ride got underway with a relatively slow pace turning off rt 10. The pace picked up near Brooksvale, as it usually does. Then on Mt Sanford Guido (on a straight up TT bike, 650 wheels, the whole nine!) put in a hard pull and all the guys on regular bikes did OK keeping up. VQ Rob, Eric M and Tall John were all working hard. Todd H as well. Then on Mountain rd the rain came! And oh boy did it ever pour! It came so hard the helicopter we use to write this review was grounded and we lost all track of who was up or down. Only a few guys were willing to work in the torrential downpour. Eric M, Julio, Hunter P, Joe K, Jesse from Keltic, a couple of others... The light at Rt68 gave everyone a chance to rub their eyes clean and spit out the road dirt. Everyone was in a bit of shock as the bad conditions came so quickly. The Powertap crew all nervously hoped that the penetrating power of water is overrated.
For some unresolved reason, a group of 20 or so riders decided to run the red light with cars barreling down on them?! Maybe they were playing by "rain rules" or something, but at that point they were no long on the "TWC"....
The Peleton resumed the ride at the GREEN light and there was talk of scrambling to any conceivable overhang to escape the rain and lightning. The delay no doubt let the rest of the ride get a bit of a gap. Dillon and tri-Doug pulled up Moss farms rd barly able to see anything! What the guys could see by Jarvis was Angry Ron, Mike McG and Joe K power away from the group with roster tails of water spraying all those who had couldn't keep up! Up the road, Eric M, Hunter P, and Jesse and the rest of the front group were slow in getting it going. High winds came and fianlly Eric M decided there was some good training to be had still. He took off and had a bit of a gap as Todd H, Chris C and others chased.
Back in the "real" group, Mike McG, Ron, Joe K, Tall John and Chris B had all jumped the gap.
The rest of the guys, trying to give chase, kept the pace high up the hills of north Cheshire.
Coming into the industrial park, Chris C came up screaming about there being guys left behind. He pulled his main man, Todd H off the attack. Chris was looking to re-group. Just then Tall John came barreling thru, pulling the rest of the chase group. The reformed front group went back to riding as usual, as the rain seemed to be letting up. Chris C (with shorts foaming at the "mouth"), Mike McG, and Hunter P all left for the sprint point, but Little T trumped em all by getting the better of Mike right before the corner.
Back in the second group, Thompson from Keltic pulled hard up Peck. The front group was in sight pulling on to rt10 but then the red lights came. The peleton was held up by at least 4 or 5 red lights and that let the front group quickly disappear. Coming out of the lights on rt10 near Hamden the pace quickened again so as to not loose to much time to the break. What Keltic guys were left and Guido on his new fancy pants bike kept the machine switched to "drill" back to the finish.
Up ahead, everyone had taken there turn on the front, Mike McG went hard for the finale with Eric M and Hunter P.
Back in the respectable, law abiding group, Guido got the Gentlemen's field win behind the break...
Crazy weather, crazy ride...
