CT has déjà vu…
The clouds roll in and roll out just like last week, everyone gets a little wet but the show goes on. Once again, the cancellation of sanctioned racing in East Hartford meant that the CCAP Pro-Am team riders were out once again try to take their fill of easy pickins.
Early on today, really early on, it was Jordan L taking off and with everyone distracted by the fast developing moistness in their shoes and chamois, he was allowed to roll. Pretty soon he was out of sign and out of mind. Behind the pace got going but the boys in purple and yellow were noticeably absent up front. Mikey Marko changed that as the ride got up to Mountain rd, and the pace clicked up a notch.
As the peleton chugged up the early parts of mountain rd, Derek Cote came up and started working on the front as well as John Harris. Everyone stayed together tho and the group came up quickly to a paused Jordan L at the light on route 68.
There was some early attacking on Moss farms, Hacker, Ben Bruce and a couple of others leading it. Joe K sewed things up, and had te rest of the pack on his wheel. Harris and Cote would take a couple of turns up front as well but no one went for the attack. Nuemotion and the Sernyak led it out into the chicane, with Chris C taking it up a notch before the corner for Marion, but it stayed all together. Hunter P, Jordan L, Ben Bruce, a new guy in a CF Racing kit and a couple of others were all there to maintain the pace.
With good timing, Derek C and John Harris attacked pretty hard off the front 300 meters after the corner, and pretty quickly had a gap. Mikey Marko and Dave #midseasonweddingbreak Hoyle also jumped in there and it soon looked like easy pickins for em. Heading past the turn for the short loop, Markowitz dropped his glasses and had to check out of the attack, and the ride. Bummer he couldn’t finish the ride out with the group. The 2 others in the break soft pedaled a bit but it was coming back at that point as there were 7 or 8 riders looking to chip into the gap. Once it came back together, the pace dropped a bit and everyone rolled onto Mount Vernon together. Jordan L and Special Ed were at it up front. Nicholas Sabatellllllli, Hunter P and the Rider from Zanes on a new S-works (name?) was up there as well. No attacks though on Mount Vernon and so it stayed together.
The pack barreled to the false flat, everyone sped by a “closed road” sign and sure enough, there were cops and cars parked everywhere 300 meters up the road. Apparently, Chevy Impalas aren’t too good on wet roads… Everyone had to turn back and re-route. Thanks to Wade “oh ok I will ride with you guys” Summers, everyone confidently rolled a mile on back roads and reconnected back to Mount Vernon soon after the traffic obstruction. From there it took the corner onto Welch to get things going again.
It was CCAP leading the initial charge up to the corner, but there was plenty of SG regulars up there as well. At the hill, Joe K kicked and rolled up with Hunter P and a couple of others directly there, the rest of the field not too far behind. Joe K went into beast mode and drove it all the way to the sprint with nary a rider trying to come around. Hunter P jumped first for the sprint but had a long way to go. Harris would go next and he had a couple of others with him there, but he was able to hold everyone off to get the sprint points.
On the backside, it almost didn’t come back together as the front group of 10 was making ground with the rain starting to fall again. A red light by I84 let everyone reconnect though. From there it was pretty orderly heading back into Cheshire. Derek C once again jumped up a kilo before crossing over 322. He took Dan “I’m baaaaaack” Smith and Nuemotion along with him but red light slowed all.
Next up, Derek C jumping hard on the drag up peck lane. He took Hunter P and Dave “last ride as a single dude” Hoyle. That eventually turned into Just Hoyle and Neumotion off the front, charging toward route 10. Those 2 would work together to maintain a gap and the pack would be held up slightly by a red light. As the Stop n Sprint came up, the gap was going down, but there was plenty of space for the leaders. Nuemotion ended up rolling thru with it and in the next couple of lights, everyone had a chance to reset a bit. One guy who stayed on the throttle was Joe K. He hammered away thru the center of Cheshire and got an assist at the light by the high school. That was enough to get him out of sight and off the front for the rest of the ride. Nice way to take advantage of a gap and pull the wool over on everyone else.
Once again, great ride everyone! Hope to see everyone out
for CT’s fastest crit, the Keith Berger Classic on Sunday.
