Big crowd today for the ride. Probably over 60 riders.
Enough chit chat…. To the action….
Right away off route 10 we had two riders pulling away. Jesse K from Keltic and another rider (Mason?) got to work and had a gap of 100 meters quickly. There was some chasing at first, Rich on a C-dale, Richard Sachs rider (name?) and Gregg F from CCR leading the chase. Morgan from Keltic as well. When the ride hit the cobbles section of Brooksvale the chase slowed. Shortly thereafter Empire Matt came flying by alone. Matt is on the most-wanted list, so that got things going briskly. The 2 leaders were caught just as the Target Training rider (name?) was jumping up and riding straight thru the front of the field. The pace went up at this point with riders spread out and there being no real front end of the peleton. Going down South brooksvale Empire Matt jumped hard again on the wheel of Vision Quest Rob. Dillon P went as well and by the corner for Mountain Rd there was a gap to a strong group in the front. Some traffic going thru the corner slowed the peleton. Up the first ramp of Mountain, Mike McG, not wanting the bus to leave without him, came up and went hard to close the gap. That put a group of around 10 or so, up the road, looking very dangerous…..
VQ Rob, Eric M, Target Training, Guido, Dillon P, Mike McG, a ride from CT Coast Cycling, Empire Matt, Jesse K, Mason, Julio from Stage one, another rider from Yale, etc…. Certainly enough horsepower to really make things interesting but the group didn’t have the greatest team work. So with some hard chasing by Little T, Shawn Forsythe ( He dropped in from R.I. to go for a ride, good to see him back ), Chris C and Hunter P, the group was brought back by Cornwall ave. From there it was all together to RT 68.
Onto Moss Farms where Target Training, in familiar fashion, went up the road alone. There was some chasing at first, but he rolled off and going into the Chicane, he was still up the road by 30 meters or so. Back in the chase, Mike McG lead everyone thru with a Tri-rider on a Trek, CT Coast, Hunter P and others waiting to go. On the hill Mike jumped hard, and everyone was able to follow. Target Training was finally reeled in on the hill. Mike is still churning out the pace though and its him and Hunter P that get the pace going on Marion. The 2 had a bit of gap that held to the industrial park.
Moving thru the park the speed wasn’t crazy fast. Shawn F drilled it up the first hill turning onto West Johnson Ave. That got things going again and rolling thru the intersection of Peck ln, tension was rising for the hills and sprint up ahead. The rises in the road and lack of traffic certainly make this spot a good one to “race” for….
200 meters before the corner of Reinhard and a lead-out train was forming. Mike McG again with Little T in tow, Chris C in there for good measure. Target Training was up the road just a tad with another rider but not far enough to take it to the top of the hill. Mike jumped hard of course, with lots of riders in his wake, Gregg F, Shawn, Guido etc. Little T easily jumped out and got a gap but was tracked down with only a few meters to the corner by Hunter P who had jumped from 10 bikes back when Empire Matt came screaming by. Matt cut the engines halfway up the hill but the late, FAST jump was enough of a leadout for Hunter.
Things came back together on the descent. Onto Peck ln where Chris Butler from Cheshire Cycle had made his way to the front and was drilling it. Matt came up too and was going hard again. Things stayed tight up to RT 10. Heading into the Stop n Shop hill, again, there was more battling up front. Keltic riders looking after Kelts, CCR riders getting Dillon P up to the front. No one seemed to care about the police car sitting and watching, as we came barreling by 4 across in the road in spots….. Empire Matt started the sprint off, Little T got his revenge and jumped off Chris C’s (?) wheel and beat everyone to the line. It was a fast one!
Heading back into Hamden….. ho hum…. Nothing exciting….. Little T was able to get the best of Shawn (?) back to Shepard Ave. But it was very close and both guys were going hard and had ridden away from the rest of us.
On the hill, Chris Butler and Hunter P again dueled it out….. We are calling that one a tie…
----official's notes: The following riders were fined 25 euro’s for yellow line infractions:
Gregg F
Hunter P
Jesse K and what the hell, Greg C too
VQ Rob
Chris B
Target Training
Guido
Look Kit rider
Joe K
