A running account of the "race without an entry fee"..... The Tuesday night ride

Tuesday the 8th

Screw the SG Ride. Let's go play basketball!

    Post-Battenkill Depression (PBD Syndrome) was in full effect tonight. It took a full 2 minutes of riding off route 10 for Chris C to hit the front and accelerate. It got things going but overall as the ride had to deal with a devilish northwest wind, the speed was slow for most of the early miles.
Chris C, Hacker and other College ST riders tired again to lift the pace on South Brooksvale, but it stayed together as The Gibertoni and Little T worked hard to close down gaps heading towards Mountain Rd.
     No real attacks of any sort on Mountain Rd. A new guy on an older Litespeed (name?) speed off and was looking pretty strong at various points of the first half but he was roped back in as the ride went by Cornwall Ave. Gregg F sped off the front as route 68/70 loomed, apparently wise to the fact that the light would be green. Everyone sped up to go thru with him and the peleton made it safely through.
     Hacker, Jacinto, Chris C, Young Suto and a couple of others kept up the pressure on Moss Farms. The lack of a red light on 68/70 meant that some of the smaller elk were still trying to jump over the fence and were in no position to chase hard initially on Moss Farms. That meant a small group (Hacker, Nuemotion, Hunter P, Chris C, Mike McG, Special Ed, Jordan Lynn, The Sernyak, rolled off on the risers. They all looked at each other though and no one took needed action to keep the bum rush going. Behind, Half of the CCB Toss-up (Good to see Sasha out tonight) was calmly bringing the field back into the front.
    Hacker kept on the gas up to Marion but would soon be corralled by the lackluster steady speed up front. CCB kept up front to help things along into the industrial park and once there, the tailwind was doing most of the work for everyone.
    Onto West Johnson, where Jordan Lynn, Chris C, College St, and a few others were making the ride go faster. More intersection traffic on Peck meant a disruption of pace. Once thru, Hacker was the first to jump with an eye on the sprint point. He rolled off slowly but got up to 50 meters out when Jacinto broke off the front in pursuit. Behind, Special Ed was ramping it up, getting the front group of 10 or so to within 20 meters. Once Jacinto reached Hacker, the 2 traded pulls and got going again before dipping down on Reinhard. That gave Hacker enough to jump for the sprint. Behind, no real teamwork up front meant the chase failed momentarily. Young Suto jumped anyway, and then soon Little T. Both would sit up pretty quickly as Hacker was away for good. He rolled thru the corner alone and then down the backside with haste. Behind Hunter P was rolling thru the corner with The Sernyak on his wheel with a gap to the rest. Those 2 stayed on the gas down and then up the riser to join up with Hacker in the left hand corner. Behind the gap to the consolidated bunch was a solid 8-10 seconds and it went up from there. No one was in a chasing mood on Peck and the 3 up the road were in breakaway mode.
    That was that. The gap kept going up and those 3 stayed away for the rest of the ride to take the season's first long ball prize. No further sprints were contested up front. Behind, the pace ramped up for the stop n shop sprint, and some were even unaware that a break was up the way. Must be the depression. It's a long season everyone!