Tuesday the 19th

A Rare Change-Up Tonight 

      The pack was feeling adventurous today. Led by Chris C's call to avoid route 10 on the way home, the consensus was to adjust the route back after crossing over 322 heading south.
      As the ride took off, a now weekly trend kept up. Alan B took off early on. Hunter P then turbo'd up through a small gap to catch him. Kyle C took after him and soon enough the 3 were together. This despite Alan's efforts to get them killed by cutting off traffic turning onto Mount Sanford Rd. The umpire reached for the red card but then grabbed the yellow one instead after both Hunter P and Kyle waved apologies to the cars.
     Those 3 stayed on the gas and were able to stay away all the way to the red light on route 68\70.
After the light, Alan B stayed on it and had The one and only French Casey along for company briefly onto Moss Farms. French Casey would end up getting hit with a flat tire. There was milling going on at the Chicane, and that slowed things down for everyone. After that, Alan would roll off the front with Shawn McCann for a bit but that was short-lived. Hunter P then attacked and Alan tracked him down to make it 2 charging toward route 322. The light was red and it was gruppo compacto as Rondo would say. Coming off the light, Alan rolled off the front again, and The Sernyak went with him right away. Hunter P them jumped up at the next uphill and that made for 3 up the road. They got to work and the pack behind was not too eager to catch them at first. The pace in the peleton picked up once everyone was onto Mount Vernon but there the trio was too quick and the chase efforts not good enough. The gap was finally coming down once the 3 turned onto Welch. On the hill to the corner, the Sernyak bid adieu to the break and that's the way it would go on to end with Hunter P and Alan B putting a few minutes into everyone else by the time they stopped riding hard at the end of Tuttle Ave / Wentworths in Hamden. Behind in the pack. Guys were too apprenhensive about the different course and the climbs on the other side of Route 10 to push the pace and it ended up being a steady, albeit lame ride back.

Here is the loop that the ride did. Stay tuned about whether it will repeat next week. 
https://www.strava.com/routes/13887509

Tuesday the 12th

The Speed Disparity Continues...

       Alan Burgess continued his rough-housing of the ride and ended getting back solo. It all started coming up to the turnaround sprint. Turning onto Welch Rd, Alan was off the front with a narrow gap, but then Hacker jumped up and joined him. No other riders went, and those two kept on the gas and were able to work together well enough to stay off the front. Behind. Ben Bruce, the Full Nalini, and Rob Dux were working up at the front in case the two up front faulted. That didn't happen. Hacker jumped around Alan to collect the points but then sat up as the rest of the pack came up.
       Alan stayed on it and was going for the home run ball after the sprint. Ben Bruce and Ryan O'hara chased hard and were about to connect in order to make it another Cheshire Cycle sweep but Henk and Max from CVC charged hard into the interchange area to get across the gap and sew up the chase. Alan caught a green light near the I84 interchange and kept on motoring along and was soon out of sight. He would end up taking all the rest of the marbles tonight. The peleton got caught behind a bunch of lights once again, and talk of changing up the loop to avoid route 10 started in earnest. We'll see if a viable alternate route actually comes to fruition.