This week's ride got off to a crap start. As route 10 pinched at the river there was a touch of wheels. There was a piece of wood in the road that may have started the dodgy riding that lead to the crash. 3 riders went down, a new rider who hurt his shoulder, Ed Angeli, and maybe one other. Ed got a big gash in the lower leg that was gushing blood. His bike fared no better as it was thrown out into the road where it was quickly rundover by an SUV... hit and run style as the driver did not stop.
Ed was slow to get to his feet but seemed ok. We're hoping everyone is ok! Everyone waited but once emergency personal got there, it was just a bunch of guys straddling their bikes getting in the way, so the ride went on.
There was tailwind going north, which definitely got everyone going pretty quickly. The ride was generally fast tonight. Graham G got things going, taking along teammate Rory D for a quick turn off the front. There was plenty of horsepower in the pack tonight as riders like Bryan McG, Sean Cahill, Christiano from Honduras, Razzle dazzle Serbal, Tall Ben, Ciocci, Young Suto etc etc, complementing the usual strong guys. It was a ride where nothing was getting far off the front and only the strong was up front driving it.
Credit Sean Cahill for trying a few times to get a gap... Moss Farms, Mount Vernon, West St going back south. For the turnaround sprint, Hacker led a group of 5 or 6 off the front on Welch. A couple of guys bridged up but the gap to the pack stayed solid till the corner, where the headwind bit in hard. Shortly after, Chris C peeled off the front, and the rest of the front group figured out who was going to pull. Nuemotion rolled off the front and once he had a gap, he was all in and managed to hold off the rest.
Heading into the Stop n Shop sprint, Hacker led a group of 4 off the front as everyone got up and over the climb by Cheshire Park. He got enough help from Christiano to stick the gap and start the sprint in a good spot. The it was close as Little T and nuemotion was charging but Hacker gets the prize.
Little T would get his revenge in the finale though as he fought thru a solid 4 or 5 guys (Mike McG, French Casey, The Full Nalini, Nuemotion) to get to the corner first.
