Tuesday the 5th

The SG Ride... Soon with an Austrian branch

    There was a decent crowd out for the penultimate to the penultimate to the penultimate Guido ride. Maybe 35-40 riders. There were a couple of new faces in the crowd, which slowed the initial pace down quite a bit. Most notably in attendance for the first time was young Kyle Crowell. Maybe everyone in Camp Chris C was taking it easy for his benefit, maybe everyone was dumfounded with what to do now that there was 2 Crowels riding bikes fast. Kyle had little problem keeping up for the first 40 min or so but became unhinged around the turnaround point. Nice job Kyle! Keep up the good work.

    The other McG was up front driving the pace to mountain road along with the Gibertoni. On Mountain, Guido took off the front over the second set of risers. Hunter P bridged up, which got everyone going faster. Chris C eventually bridged up as well but dragged the rest of the field up with him. Guys like Ciocci, Jacinto, Cornell, Rob Dux and a couple of others picked up the slack and brought it back.

    Onto Moss Farms where Hunter P took off first and was soon joined by a fast attacking Hacker. Those 2 built up a gap over the risers heading to the chicane. It took the field a little while to ramp it but soon guys like Chris C, Mike McG, the new guy in White, (Burgeebaby), Rob Dux, Tall John, Mountain Man and others all pitching in to keep it close. Lights went out for the front duo on the hill toward Marion. After the corner, everyone took a breather and it stayed quick but uneventful to the light on 322.

    Chappy and Chris C kicked it off on Mount Vernon, but without attacks, the pace stayed respectable instead of gang busters. Hunter P rolled off the front on the false flat but didnt get too far on his own. A new guy with Italian Flair charged onto the milled road section with Hacker, Hunter P and Guido close behind. The push was enough to cause a some problems in the field and plenty of guys dropped off the pace. The leading group tried to keep up the pressure after the road got better but the rest of the field would soon catch back up, led by Chris C and Mike McG. That meant everyone was together for the corner onto Welch. Hacker was the first to fire a shot for the corner. Chris C quickly responded with 3 or 4 others. Hacker had to hold up for the corner a bit and once everyone was thru, no one had much of a gap. Chris C stayed on the gas but slowly came back. Bryan McG next hit the front and rolled off a little gap. Once he saw it, he put his down and took a bigger gap as the sprint came up. Behind, Ben Bruce, Mike McG, and Hunter P cued up. Ben was the first to jump and saved it for the last possible moment. Hunter P went with him and soon was chasing down McGil with Jacinto further behind. Too much too late though as Bryan was able to hang on by a bike length.

     On the backside, no one took any chances with an attack and instead, a couple of guys who had been dropped were able to come back on. From there, heading downhill, The Gibertoni and Chappy were trying to get something started but to no avail. Going under the highway, The Gibertoni jumped hard, taking Hunter P and Tall John with him. That trio worked up a bit of a gap but traffic at the intersections slowed everyone down.

     Onto Peck Lane where the speed stayed high but no one was attacking. Heading up the false flat, Chris C took to the front and was going hard enough to create a bit of group. As rhe speed dropped a touch a few seconds later, The Other McG took off and quickly got a gap as everyone was looking around at each other. Hacker jumped across the gap a moment later and got up to Bryan easily by the corner for route 10. They stayed on the gas as behind, the rest were taking too long to figure it out. One red light for the peleton later, it was donesville for the chase. The 2 leaders worked up an even bigger gap as they rode thru the Stop n Sprint evenly sharing the workload. Nice job to Hacker and Bryan McG for the strong riding!

    Just a reminder for everyone.... Next week, Cheshire Cycle is hosting post ride beer and pizza in honor of 2 of the strongest riders to ever become SG regulars.... Guido and Jacinto. The 2 of them are moving from the fair state of CT and we would like to send them off well. Please leave a comment here or on the Sleeping Giant Ride Facebook page that you plan on hanging out. It would be nice to get a head count so as to know how many strippers to hire.