An angel, the underdog, and two mobsters
It was an impressive sized group tonight for the ride. Great weather brought them out in droves. Even so, the ride got off to a real slow start. Maybe the strong guys were waiting to see who would make the first move. All the usual characters were out. Joe K, Hacker, The Sernyak, MJA, plus a good crew of Capital Velo guys. There was a new guy on a C-dale with a MTBish helmet who was riding strong early on as well. For the most part, it was Cheshire and Yalies driving the pace early on. Alan B, Steffen H, Dillon P, Joe K, Alan B, The Sernyak and Henk P. Give em Kudos.
There were no real attacks until Moss Farms, where Alan B took off briefly with Hacker but that was going nowhere. MJA made a couple of strong pulls up front but absent attacks, it just kept the pace high for all. It stayed together pretty much the entire way to Mount Vernon.
Once there, Alan B and Joe K jumped off the front and built up a gap as the chase was slow to get going. They had Cheshire teammates doing some soft pulls up front, which allowed the gap to stay all the way until after the false flat section. The break was also assisted by some blocking and stopped cars. Once they were caught, Alan B went right back on the offensive and attacked again. That was short lived as Hacker and MJA made their way up front, and along with efforts from Chris C and The Sernyak, it was all back together again for Welch.
There, the pace slowed down again. Giving a few guys the chance to push the pace as the ride got towards West St. Steffen H, Dan Smith, Henk P, MJA all up front. Little T came up front on the hill, but it was Chris C taking everyone thru and leading out the early part of the drag to the sprint. Alan B jumped early in front of Little T and Hunter P, and no one chased. He was able to stay on it long enough to get the sprint, with Hunter P coming over next in front of Brian G.
Dillon P pushed off the front along with Steffen H on the backside, but red lights kept it together. Then Alan B suffered a flat. With a tailwind now, the pace stay high, but the ride had to stop for some traffic at the I84 off ramp. Chris C attacked after that, and was allowed a gap. The pace ramped up behinid and then with 200 meters to the hill going back under I84, Hunter P jumped across the gap and caught Chris C by the top of the hill. Those two kept on the gas and maintained a gap all the way to the light.
Then, in a rare perfectly timed crossing off route 322, the 2 leaders shot through a green light just in time for it trap-door red on the pack, which was bearing down and just 5-6 seconds behind. That was all Chris C and Hunter P would need for the rest of the ride. So the two biggest d-bags of the SG got away. They probably traded perfectly paced pulls all the way back to SG, complete with please's and thank you's.
Good ride everyone!
