"We won't get rained on"..."The rain will miss us"
The sun was shining nicely as the ride got underway with a relatively slow pace turning off rt 10. The pace picked up near Brooksvale, as it usually does. Then on Mt Sanford Guido (on a straight up TT bike, 650 wheels, the whole nine!) put in a hard pull and all the guys on regular bikes did OK keeping up. VQ Rob, Eric M and Tall John were all working hard. Todd H as well. Then on Mountain rd the rain came! And oh boy did it ever pour! It came so hard the helicopter we use to write this review was grounded and we lost all track of who was up or down. Only a few guys were willing to work in the torrential downpour. Eric M, Julio, Hunter P, Joe K, Jesse from Keltic, a couple of others... The light at Rt68 gave everyone a chance to rub their eyes clean and spit out the road dirt. Everyone was in a bit of shock as the bad conditions came so quickly. The Powertap crew all nervously hoped that the penetrating power of water is overrated.
For some unresolved reason, a group of 20 or so riders decided to run the red light with cars barreling down on them?! Maybe they were playing by "rain rules" or something, but at that point they were no long on the "TWC"....
The Peleton resumed the ride at the GREEN light and there was talk of scrambling to any conceivable overhang to escape the rain and lightning. The delay no doubt let the rest of the ride get a bit of a gap. Dillon and tri-Doug pulled up Moss farms rd barly able to see anything! What the guys could see by Jarvis was Angry Ron, Mike McG and Joe K power away from the group with roster tails of water spraying all those who had couldn't keep up! Up the road, Eric M, Hunter P, and Jesse and the rest of the front group were slow in getting it going. High winds came and fianlly Eric M decided there was some good training to be had still. He took off and had a bit of a gap as Todd H, Chris C and others chased.
Back in the "real" group, Mike McG, Ron, Joe K, Tall John and Chris B had all jumped the gap.
The rest of the guys, trying to give chase, kept the pace high up the hills of north Cheshire.
Coming into the industrial park, Chris C came up screaming about there being guys left behind. He pulled his main man, Todd H off the attack. Chris was looking to re-group. Just then Tall John came barreling thru, pulling the rest of the chase group. The reformed front group went back to riding as usual, as the rain seemed to be letting up. Chris C (with shorts foaming at the "mouth"), Mike McG, and Hunter P all left for the sprint point, but Little T trumped em all by getting the better of Mike right before the corner.
Back in the second group, Thompson from Keltic pulled hard up Peck. The front group was in sight pulling on to rt10 but then the red lights came. The peleton was held up by at least 4 or 5 red lights and that let the front group quickly disappear. Coming out of the lights on rt10 near Hamden the pace quickened again so as to not loose to much time to the break. What Keltic guys were left and Guido on his new fancy pants bike kept the machine switched to "drill" back to the finish.
Up ahead, everyone had taken there turn on the front, Mike McG went hard for the finale with Eric M and Hunter P.
Back in the respectable, law abiding group, Guido got the Gentlemen's field win behind the break...
Crazy weather, crazy ride...
23 comments:
Yup! Crazy ride sums it up. Rained so hard that I road the entire Moss Farms portion of road with my hand up over my eyes to shield the rain and ride in the pack at the same time. All the while, lightening was crashig everywhere around us. It was fun though.
Chris C.
who are they kidding. Mike and Ron didn't wait at the light. They got dropped!
Chris C.
If you were in the front group on 10 you may have seen the bubble boy try to line out the ride . Rik VanStienbeck had the Red Guard Cipo had the Red train , LT now has the Train of incompetence . Way to go boys!!! Whats next line him up against a building and throw rocks at him ?
...I didn't realize that we were trying to line-up Little T for the proverbial win. Perhaps we are incompetent.
Here's the more accurate version of the TWC Ride:
"......Julio has a new name upon his arrival in Argentina "Coolio"...32 degrees and he claims he will ride. Have a safe trip Coolio and if any one is interested in taking a vacation in a cold place in the middle of Summer Mad Mike gave me the web sight www.PolishHoliday.com for all the info. The CWC Report- We left the Giants lot and the sky was looking a bit angry "angrier than Angry Ron when Bubble Boys go up the road" then it hit. Chris Jones turned back so I knew I had to step up and fill his bibs / I meant shoes. So at the Notch I planed my attack...Hunter P and I had a plan or should I say a Master P plan. Role through the red/orange light and drill it, it worked perfect. Every one waited while Hunter P and Todd H rode away leaving Mad Mike at the light. It was raining so hard that I just thought I was riding so fast even Mad couldn't hold my wheel. Then it happened a screeching voice with a Boston twang rang out "Todd Sit The Hell Up" It was Cheese Cake waking me up like a annoying alarm clock that wakes you before your dream has a chance for a happy ending. We sat up for about five minuets, give or take four minuets fifty nine seconds and Mad shows up with a big smile "WTF who ever went through the red light &^&^*&^($ WTF" So I asked politely "Which red light are you referring to Sir" Well our master P plan almost worked...maybe next time. If Chris Jones had been there I'm sure he would have come up with a very similar plan of attack except for choosing Hunter P or me. We looked to the sky and to our amazement a double rainbow leading us all back to the S&S parking lot full of pizza and beer...now thats a happy ending!"
Don't consider it "running a red light"...consider it "trying to be a moving target so as not to get struck by lightning".
Bad Santa
Rondo,
Weren't you the conductor on the Train of Incompetence this past weekend?
Maybe but I did race this weekend did you anon ? Why dont you post your name then I can comment on your race ? Oh yea thats right your a pussy .
WTF? Was that rain? Does lightning strike guys on bikes?
Real MEN pedal faster and harder to get up the road. Immature, childish, weak, stupid and arrogant riders use running reds as a form of "breaking away"!
I hope next time every single rider who runs a red, thinking the laws of the land and the laws of physics don't apply to his God-like holiness, gets taught a sorely needed lesson with the front end of a Buick doing 52MPH.
Arrogant losers...
wow. Someone gets a high finish in a crit and look whos thinking that he deserves to be near the front....
"Deserves to be near the front" ???
Is that how you get up front annony? You run a red and then run your mouth?
Tune into the Tour this month and see how actual cyclists "get near the front"...
Besides, I never said I was up front. I'm not strong enough for that... Maybe I'll just start runnin' reds to compensate.
Lets play nice everyone. Nobody was trying to cheat anyone else by running the light.
Lets put this in perspective. It's raining so hard that you cannot see. There is lightning crashing all around us and we are sitting wide open in the middle of an intersection. Yes some of us rolled through the red to keep moving and get out of the open. there were no cars coming and I thought we would seek shelter under the Notch store overhang but I was out voted. It's not like it was a nice sunny afternoon on a typical tuesday ride and we decided to blow through the biggest intersection on the ride for fun. Calm down.
Chris C.
Also, Dillon I know you do not actually wish a fellow cyclist to be hit by a car. That's just not something you joke about. That's just bad carma.
Chris C.
Why is Dillon so angry? He must have lot of pent up agression, perhaps like our good friend Rondo.
And why have I never seen Thompson from Keltic on the ride but he is sometimes mentioned as drilling it at the front? I believe you must be speaking of John Morgan who has ridden the TWC since Henry Ford rolled out the first Model T. That guy is pushing 57 years old and weighs more than Dillon P, yet he rides faster and never flaps his lips........
Anon aka Morgan , nice post on your self . Theres no pent up anger in me thats the differnce I let my fustration out on the likes of you . Dillon is right about running the light . Also I wouldnt be to proud of pulling the laughing pack in if I were you .
Anon aka Morgan , nice post on your self . Theres no pent up anger in me thats the differnce I let my fustration out on the likes of you . Dillon is right about running the light . Also I wouldnt be to proud of pulling the laughing pack in if I were you .
FU "Chicken Rondolay".....go ride for Stage 1 with the Train of Inpotents.....
God-like holiness? Wow, take it easy there big fella...your brother and I never realized every one waited for the light. The ride,the report, and the comments are all about having fun and getting a good work out...have fun!
Bubblelicious
for those interested in a Fitchburg update, or just to change the tone of the previous comments a little bit:
Empire Matt got FIRST overall Cat1 (non Pro) with his 6th place in the Pro/cat1 field. He placed around top ten on every of the four race days! Impressive.
In a fair world Chris Jones would have probably taken the overall win for the Pro's. You may see him listed as 5th place but what the results don't say is that he was the third to last to start the uphill TT on day one. The last twenty riders faced torrential downpours (it was reported the day turned to night - nice to see at trueport.com). The road turned into a river within 3 mins. For those not familiar with the Fitchburg TT it's the worst road ever (worse than Peck lane) for 6.5 miles, 5 of which are 750 ft uphill. He easily lost the 30 sec there that made the difference to overall first.
There were a good number of local riders there and all looked strong. Petrillo, some Keltics.
I for myself claim a personal record I do not intend to repeat. I was taken down by crashes three times in two consecutive days. Fortunately, thanks to SRAM support and enough meat on my bones I was able to somehow finish with the pack and not lose any GC time.
Great 4 days of racing, highly recommended!
hope everyone had a good holiday weekend,
see you guys at the SG
Guido
I see you didn't mention your new choice of bike Guido. Were you just shaking the dust off it or can we expect to see you on it this week?
A nice update anyhows...
If you need more MEAT on your bones for crash protection, I recommend the Tuesday "all you can eat" ribs at Humphries after the ride.
Dillon, if you showed up at the Laurel TT like Hunter did last week (congrats for 1st place!) you would see me on the white bike again...
seriously, there is no point for a TT bike on the SG ride. Handling and shifting sucks and you're slower than on the road bike as you can't use the aerobars.
Only reason I used it last week was to get used to riding with my hands on the base bar in preparation to the Fitchburg uphill TT. By the way, wheels are normal 700 size. You hardly see 650 wheels anymore at big TT events.
I'm sure deep inside Rondo would love to ride a TT bike at the SG ride. Kind of.
see you all,
G
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