The Bouncy Castle
equivalent of bike rides....
The long loop hangs on with another
week of fun as the usuals ( Guido, Chris C, Ratta, Hunter P, Hacker ) lead the way, some segments are dominated by others (
Todd H, Tall John ) and some new faces ( Bike Doctor, Calfee, Ag2R kit... yuck ) pop up to make the ride
interesting.
As soon as Professor Crowle was done handing out graded papers ( hope you all had a chance to review his rules! ) the ride took off.
Right off route 10, Guido, Hacker and
Hunter P rode off the front and quickly took a gap. Soon after,
Ag2R Igor, visiting from NY, rode across the gap as the leaders
paused slightly to gain the extra pony. The peleton slowly awakened
and started to sort out how it would handle the threat. Some traffic
stacked up on the Mount Sanford corner caused Guido to lose contact
with Hacker and Hunter P but soon after would re-join with Igor,
keeping the 4some together for the run-in to Mountain Road. Behind
the chase was full on and a good sized group of strong guys had
broken off the front going the thru the small risers and corners. By
the turn onto Mountain, the chase group, led by Yalle!Snoop, Ciocci,
Jacinto and a new guy in a Bike Doctor kit were coming up fast. The
connection was made on the initial risers of Mountain. The rest of
the peleton was within 50-60 meters but still had to work hard to
keep the lead group, now with most of the reliable horsepower, from
riding away into the sunset. The "D-bag merit badge" for the night goes
to the gentleman who yelled at Timex Cassie to close a gap when he
couldn't... Man up friend! ( and give Giordana or Hincapie clothing a
try ). Another lesson learned in the classroom as it chased the
leaders was the unreliability of fancy carbon h2O cages. Dillon P's
bottle busted free and exploded on everyone.
Up front, The lead group of 10 took a
moment to recollect on the risers. Yelle!Snoop, Guido, Jacinto, and
Hunter P tried to get things going smoothly up front. A car pulling
too far out of Cornwall Ave spooked everyone and broke into the team
work, giving the peleton a chance to pull closer. Hunter P and Tall
John tried a last moment jump to stay clear before the light and
before the peleton caught up but the light was red and it was all
back together again.
Hacker jumped on Moss Farms, no
surprises there. He made it thru the light smooth enough so that no
one was able to join him so it was going to be a long shot. An
accident was nearly averted when The Bike Doctor went straight
instead of onto Moss Farms, nearly crashing into Gregg F. ( Rule #
??? everyone!.... Don't make head-master repeat himself. ). Once onto
Moss Farms, Yelle!Snoop jumped hard, taking Guido along. Hunter P
bridged up, taking along Ratta and a couple of others and then the
whole rest of the pack. As the Chicane loomed, Hacker was coming
back. Ratta gets the “Safety First” merit badge this week by
calling out traffic in the four-way intersection before everyone
barreled thru, into a car that was running the stop sign.
The speed slowed way down up the hill
and onto Marion as everyone was needing to reset the ol blood
pumpers. Yelle!Snoop, Todd H, French Casey, a older gent in black,
Hunter P, a squirrelly rider in a US Army kit and Larry M got thing
going again going past the Industrial Park. The weekly attempt to
make the light was from Keltic O'shea, Chris C, Ratta and Yelle!Snoop
but it was red.
The initial speed on Mount Vernon was
anemic. Super slow. A couple of usual sticklers-for-speed were
resting up for a planned attack on the turnaround ( we'll hear more
about them later ). The pace slowly went up before the false flat,
but went straight back down again once there, making for some clumsy
uphill group etiquette. That gave a chance for small group led by
Gregg F to break clear but that didnt last too long as a few guys
started it up again on the downhill rollers. Tall John was up there a
lot, trying to break free. Chris C then moved up later on toward the
turnaround. Heading up to the corner, Hacker attacked, taking along
Guido. Also attentive and preset were Igor and Yelle!Snoop. That made
for a foursome with a gap racing to West St. Behind, the peleton
seemed content to peg the gap at 12 seconds and slowly pull it back
on Welch. In the break, Yelle!Snoop had some drivetrain issues,
nearly bringing him to stop. Then Igor put in a
“this-is-the-end-of-the-ride-right” type pull, blowing up in the
process. That left just the Guido and Hacker up front to execute the
plan for world domination. Behind the peleton was closing in thanks
to efforts from the guy on the Calfee, Chris C, The Bike Doctor, Todd
H, Ratta, Tall Dennis, Hunter P and even Timex Cassie got involved.
Igor also bravely rolled back into rotation once he was caught.
Guido pulled hard once more for Hacker
and left him at the base of the hill with a decent gap of 65 meters.
On the hill, Little T, who is back to his out-of-the-saddle,
bending-chainrings self jumped up and away. Hunter P jumped from the
front and was on him in a moment and Chris B was also close behind.
Little T settled in on West St for the chase just as Chris B decided
to go all-in. Chris quickly got a small gap and with Hunter P sitting
on Little T's wheel, unwilling to chase down the Cheshire Cycle
Racer, Chris was allowed to go free. He ended up catching Hacker and
he was able to put in a bit a sprint to go up and thru to get the
sprint point. Kudos to Chris B, who is always up there trying to get it
but falls short to the sprinters most of the time.
On the backside, Hunter P came up with
the Bike Doctor but the 3 would be held up by lights. Once over the
highway, Little T unleashed a solid attack, taking along the C-Dale
rider in teal. Hunter P gave chase and was barely keeping it close as
it was full speed up hill for a while until a red light stopped
Little T.
Heading onto Atwater St, A new guy in
a US National Tri Team kit, Teal guy in Castelli, Mountain Man and
Hunter P got things going with the peleton responding. Ciocci and
Igor also as the ride went under the overpass. Guido took the reigns
after the slight hill there. That was enough to tear a small gap in
the field with about 6 guys up front but light was red going over
322, making it compacto again.
Over the light, Igor struck first with
Tall John. Mountain Man and Ratta upped the pace and it was back
together. Ratta then rolled off alone up the fisrt part of Peck and
was soon joined by Bike Doctor, Tall Dennis & Ciocci. Again,
Mountain Man sewed up it behind that group. Hacker then rolled thru
with Guido and Hunter P. Behind, guys were scrambling both ways as
the hill took its toll. Yelle!SNoop would dig hard on the front with
Hunter P, Todd H, Igor and Ratta. That group had a small gap but once
onto Route 10 it was pretty much all together. Todd H took a monster
pull the whole way up the hill by Cheshire Park, keeping the speed
high. Tall John eventually took over and rolled off the front as
everyone else seemed ok to wait for the sprint. Hacker jumped on his
wheel for a free ride but a red light stopped that from happening.
For the Stop n Shop sprint, once
everyone got going from zero, Jacinto pulled hard for a bit, Guido
and the Full Nalini as well. A couple of new faces popped up in the
top 10 for the first time on the night. This one was all Little T
though as he was pretty much unchallenged as he jumped from 5 bikes
back and took it easily.
The ride thru Cheshire was interesting
as there were a couple of red lights and stacked cars the pack had a
to get thru. Going by the McDonald, there was a big gap to a good
sized group up the way that had been more fortunate with traffic.
Ratta put in a good pull to bring that back and from there it was
status quo going back into Hamden. Good job ladies as Timex
Cassie and the Velo Sport girl kept a solid place within the pack all
the way back.
For the finale, Guido buried himself 6
feet under with a good pull in the last kilo. A bunch of guys cued up
behind him but there were only a couple who could really
capitalize on it. Little T, Chris B, Yelle!Snoop and 1 or 2 others. Little
T was able to pedal thru to the end.
Up the hill went Chris B with a gap on
Hunter P and Mountain Man that he was able to hold onto all the way
to top. Making it 2 on the night for Butler.
Good ride guys. All newbies are
expected to turn in their make-up papers before next weeks ride.
As for the long loop and daylight, the
New Haveners have right of way here as they don’t have the bike
path to ride back on ( well actually they do.... They just like to
steer clear of the nightly beer-crawl rides that the single speeders
love ). They are good with one more week of
long loop so long as the weather is decent.
