"My road racing season is over. Except of course for the SG ride"
The crowd seemed a little light today. Maybe vacations are in full
swing. No one seemed in too much of a rush to get to steppin. Dillon P
rolled off the front right off route 10 and was allowed to go clear.
Julio L would end up start the jump to bridge up but ended up
pulling the rest of the field into action and by the end of the crap
road section, it was all back together again. From there the pace was
solid with the usuals chipping in up front. On Mountain Rd a small
group was started to get a gap, led by Todd H and The Gibertoni but
that was short-lived.
Onto Moss Farms where Jacinto jumped up and was the first to
get going as the rest of the field had some trouble quickly getting
through the messed up road. Hacker would soon make his way up front
as well and that was enough to bring it all back. From there, guys
like Chris C, Mike McG, Hunter P and The Full Nalini drove the pace
thru the Chicane. Chis C and Hunter P led all up the hill to Marion
with Hunter P continuing it fast enough to break off a group of about
4 but the group fell apart with dis-jointed efforts from Hacker and
Hunter P at the very front. The field was bearing down pretty hard
with it being an obvious threat. Once Hunter P was back in the group
Hacker would try a couple more stabs before the light for 322, which
was red.
Once onto Mount Vernon, Guido took off with Gregg F and Rory
D in check and that got things going. No one was attacking so the
pace stayed level all the way to the false flat ( now 4 degrees
straighter! ) and beyond. Danbury Audi took a dig after the
construction section but the speed was too high to escape easily. A
couple of fast guys took to the front as the peleton got close to the
corner for Welch. Hacker, Chris C, Guido, etc. Even still, the pace
on Welch was average and that let Hacker slip free halfway to the
turnaround. He only had a handful of seconds going thru the corner as
there was a long line of guys cued up behind. Julio L, Chris C,
Jacinto, Mike McG and a little farther back was Little T and Todd H.
More strong riding from the Gibertoni as he was up there as well.
Jacinto would end up catching Hacker and there was hesitation as to
who else would join them. That let the 2 slip away and with Jacinto
up at front and setting a strong tempo, Hacker was able to collect
the sprint points with little problem.
As the group came down the backside, there was plenty of guys
ready to get going. Tall John, The Gibertoni, and Hunter P hit the
front looking to sneak away. They got all greens up to Jude Lane,
which is a rarity. The field was right there though so no escape. The
non-stop action was enough to pop a couple of guys though who would
normally use the lights to make a collect call to the front.
Once again Chris C jumped at the light going green by Jude and
this time Hunter P went with him. Those 2 wokred up a gap of maybe 75
meters at max but with a slight headwind, and a chasing pack were not
going to get far. The Gibertoni was right there at the catch and
moved straight on by and was the only one to get thru the changing
light before Atwater. He got straight to work on that gap by himself
and even though the field paused for only a few seconds Gibertoni was
nearly out of sight. Up front Young Keith from the Motoring Mullaly's
was eager to get going and along with Wade B and Hunter P briefly
had a gap on the rest but once Guido decided to step on the gas it
was all back together in chase of the one leader. The Gibertoni held
on all the way to the light, which was green, letting the field slip
by without incident.
From there, the ride onto Peck Lane was uneventful. Dave
Rustico, Julio L and Tall John were up there. Pitching in up front as
well with more stick-his-nose-into-the-wind-riding from Keith
I-broke-my-own-fingers-so-the-shop-would-”moto
route”-my-bike-brakes Mullaly. From there to route 10 it was
normal.
As the ride went by Cheshire Park ( site of Cheshire Cycling's
2013 Cyclocross Extravaganza! ) a small group went clear but it was
brought back as guys like Hacker, Mike McG and Little T squared up
for the sprint. The run-in to the hill was interesting as there were
a lot of guys going pretty hard up front. A couple riders decided to
pull chute at the wrong moment and that gave everyone a little dodge
for your life practice. The sprint was slow at first and contested by
a few guys but Little jumped out in front quickly and hung on. No one
was very close to getting clear thru the center of town. Once again,
almost all green lights for a change and the field was quickly thru
town in chase of Tall Dennis and Julio L who drilled it hard to get
off the front.
The usual fast guys ( and girl! ) on the flats help out up
front and that led to a good sized group gunning for the finale.
Little T jumped out in front but had to pedal extra fast to hold off a
charging Completo Nalino.
Good ride everyone... Be sure to leave your
words of motivational wisdom in the comments section!
