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

Tuesday the 21st



The Crowells are gone = There’s a huge crowd out tonight!

    Biggest crowd of the year by many estimations. A few CCAP juniors along with Aidan C, Bryan McGill, and all the regulars, save of course for 2 Crowells, who were away today.

    The pace was calm out of the parking lot but just as soon as the ride turned left, Noah Blue Eyes Levine was off the front in a flash along with McGill. Response was quick from a few others… Dillon P, Tall John, Crazy Chris and a couple of others. It was soon all together but then Nick S shot off and the first half of the ride was follow that pattern. Attacking juniors with the rest chasing em down each time. Alien Burgess would get involved, Aidan C, Nuemotion, the Pac Swim dude on the BMC and a couple of others.
    A couple of early attacks on Moss Farms got the pace going but it stayed together till the end. Gibertoni rolled off the front with a couple of meters to go before the corner and took a slight gap into the chicane. The field was string out because of that, slow riders thru the corner and then a car coming up on the intersection. By the time it was sorted out, Hunter P was attacking up hill to Marion and would take a solo gap for a bit. From there it was altogether for a while thought McGill would lead  another flyer, which would be foiled by the light.
    Noah was at it again on the early parts of Mount Vernon, there was others to push the pace so it ended up stringing out pretty good into the moderate headwind. Next action was on the hill / false flat section, when Hunter attacked hard and took Alan B, Joe K, BMC and Numotion with him. The response was swift to that. The lead group came together moments later and worked up a gap for a few hunter meters but then split up as the terrain kicked again. BMC stayed on the gas and dangled out in front for a little while but it was soon all back together.
    Heading up Welch, Aidan C took off and Levine was right there to follow him. Also jumping was Keith Mullallallalalaaly. Those 3 maintained a decent gap going all the way thru the corner. They would eventually be traced down 150 meters after turning south.  Behind in the group, Mike McG jumped on the hill, taking along Nuemotion. There were several that responded it but those 2 got to the leaders first. For a hot second it there was 8 or so riders pretty much together but Nuemotion stayed on the gas, came around all and hit the jets to get an early jump on the sprint. He held on as Alan B, Ben Bruce and one or 2 others made a go of it, but were too far behind.
    The ride came back together and stayed like that all the way back into Cheshire. Once onto route 10, Alan B once again throttled the early hill there, taking along Hunter P, The Sernyak and Nick S. That group had a gap that may have gone farther but a red light brought it all together. There was time to get the speed up again before the sprint and this time it was Ben Bruce hitting the afterburners first. A couple steps behind was Alan B, Little T and Nuemotion but they didn’t have the time to get up to Ben Bruce, although it was close.
    The usual semi-white knuckle run back into Hamden happened. Unfortunately, right past the corner for Cook Hill Rd, Eddie Clark from Bikers Edge went down after a rider dove in front of his wheel. He nearly kept it up but ended up sliding down on top of his bike. He had a nasty contusion on his shin, along with the usual scrapes but was otherwise ok. 2/3rds the field stopped and most slowly continued on soon after.
     Thank goodness for corners and hills to keep most of the ride honest!