Surprise Surprise Gravel Detour Brings Drama
Solid numbers out tonight once again. The ride will be humming along until the Tuesday night crit series kicks off at Rentchler Field. Four weeks of fully scored racing means there is no recap for SGR then. There will be guys out but most will be up north.
Back to the ride, MgntXprss was up early, bringing the pace up. Brian O and Turner along with Body Over Bike, Tom K, and Jon Fecik were all pushing the pace up front. Chris Brits had a dig off the front on Northbrooksvale but didn't get too far off the front.
Per usual, the pace ramped up on the early part of Mountain Rd, this time with David Lapierre come up to the front briefly. A small group with teams represented (Sean Cahill, Steffen H, Chris C) pushed off the front on Mountain Rd, but enough guys were there to fill in the gaps. Sean M then had a dig to get to the light. Hunter P jumped on that, and that brought the rest. The light was red anyway.
Onto Moss Farms, where the powderkeg-conditions continued. The pace was high with Turner F, Jon Fecik, the two Seans, and David L pulling through a few times. Going thru the chicane and up to Marion, everyone was together, but soon there was a gap forming to a strong group (Brian O, Sean C, David L, Brian Wolfe) pushed off and was allowed to get a gap. It was full gas going over the highway but everyone was to get the green light crossing 322. This brought it all back together, but conditions were ripe for counterattacks.
The one Rider up to the challenge was David l, who launched it off the front early on Mount Vernon. The rest were content to watch him go up the road, and he quickly built up a lead of 100m or so.
The gap yo-yoed the entire way down Mount Vernon, at times getting up to 30 seconds. Towards the end of Mount Vernon, a group of four or five, led by Jeff Gelt, pushed off the front to close the gap. That ended up with just Jeff G making it all the way up to David L, and the gap was down to 50 meters or so going through the corner for Welch. Soon, it was just David L off the front, pushing to the turnaround.
Hitting the hill before the corner, Little T jumped hard, taking along Turner F and Hunter P. Those three got up to David L soon after the corner, just in time to start playing games to the sprint. The break had a solid gap and were not getting caught from behind. Little T jumped to get it in front of Hunter P and Turner F.
On the backside, Turner dropped his chain on the downhill and had to stop. David L pushed on with Hunter P on his wheel, but a red light at Jude Lane brought it all toghter again.
Chris Brits was pushing off the fron again on the downhill but that didn't work this week and it was all together. Hunter P pushed off the front on Atwater, but that didn't last long either, and the light on 322 was red.
Once over 322, everyone was setting up for the detour (nobody wanted to race with CX bikes so we had to detour East Johnson's new gravel road section). David L attacked hard on the hill on West Johnson, taking along Hunter P. Those two hit Reinhard with 100 meters and grew the gap up the hill to the corner. Behind, the peloton moved thru the corners quickly but safely. Up front the leaders had too much of a gap and were able to build on it getting to the greenhouse climb and up it.
Never were they in sight, and that's how it wrapped up off the front.
For the pack behind, the greenhouse climb was fairly sublime as it appeared that the Raspberry Rush group had played all their cards and fatigue seemed to have set in. Little T rolled over the line at the orchard for third. There were some harder efforts once past the light at 68, but nothing stuck as far as breakaways go. Going into the sprint, Sean C started the sprint from the bottom of the bump, with Steffen H on his wheel. Little T came around them both for the finale.
