Ride starts with a fashion show, ends with dignified leg-tearing-off...
Great ride tonight as some new pieces of clothing were put on display. Congrats to Eric M on his new winners jersey and his upset in the 30+field in Harlem. And everyone s favorite team, Sommerville Sports, were riding with the new "post-Memorial day, summer-white version" of the ol big globe jersey. Both look great on their respective owners.
On to the ride were we had a few new faces. Could it be that news of the TWC is spreading?
Turning off route 10, everybody was feeling a little chatty. And so no one was in a hurry to get on with the antics. Hunter P started things off on Mount Sanford rd. He was quickly joined by Mason from Dartmouth and the ride was on. The two worked up a small gap but by the time Mountain Rd was in sight, they had been caught. The field being led by Chris C, Morgan from Keltic(?), Hacker and others. Hacker continued the drilling up the first riser on Mountain. He had help at the front from Eric M and the Vision Quest rider.
The pace was high all the way on Mtn rd tonight. Going by Higgans, Matt from Empire, who it is now known, works as a wind tunnel test dummy during the day, came plowing thru on his new TT ride. This caused all sorts of crap to happen as guys were already stretched thin, and Matt was turning a "healthy" gear over. He rode off the front with an attentive Jesse from Keltic, and a Stage 1 rider (todd?Julio?). The trio pulled away and in its wake, nearly split the field in two. Guys like Chris C, Crazy Chris, Tall John, Hunter P, Mason?, New rider on a raw carbon Bianchi, and a CCB rider were all scrambling to chase. By the end of MTN rd. The trio waited at the light, the chase group, up to about ten guys, and the rest of the ride, all came together, but not before some were cursing the fact that Matt chose to ride the TT bike tonight.
Onto Moss Farms where Matt continued to roll. Guys were attentive to it tho & it meant the pace was high. Rolling into the Chicane, Todd H & hunter P lead things up the hill to Marion. Little T, Hacker, and Eric M busted out some phat beats and laid it down nice the rest of the way thru the corner. A little delay behind a slow car (stupid internal combustion engines) slowed things a tad and this let Tall John roll away. He kept his gap into the industrial park. Guido had a go at closing the gap by himself, but stayed in no man's land as the strong men behind were trying to decide how to play the rest of the ride out.
Lots of faces up at the front going thru the industrial park, Rondo, Eric M, Matt.... All going hard. Both CCB riders ( Bieliakowski and Buben ) made their way to the front by the end and that put everyone's ears back and tails low. They drilled it up the first sections of West Johnson, the pace was quite fast, faster than normal thru this section. They eased up going thru the insection of Peck ln and that gave Mike McG a chance to jump off the front, same as last week. After a pause, Hunter P gave chase, dragging Jesse from Keltic and Julio?. Maybe not him, but by the corner for Reinhard, Mike had two guys with him and a small but meaningful gap. Going up Reinhard, things got a little crazy, guys jumping across, guys sliding backwards. Credit Mike with the sprint (?!), but it was all together going back towards Peck Ln, albeit very fast and together.
Moving onto Peck, CCR strong men, Joe K and Chris B came up and led the charge to the Rt 10. Again, the speed was very respectable, and no one was motivated to attack. Onto Rt 10 where Chris B kept it redlined and was rolling away from the field by the top of the climb past Cheshire Park. But this week, guys were there to cover and make up the gap. A stop at the intersection of Rt10 and Maple let everyone catch their breath. Matt and Chris B rolled off the light fast and they had an acceptable head start toward the Stop & Shop hill. Little T jumped late in pursuit, but brought along with him, Hacker, Chris C, and a couple of others. The light was red though so we really cant declare a winner. Chris B and Matt would have gotten there first though.
The peleton caught every light red thru the first half of Cheshire. Things picked up on the south side and we were rolling along at a good clip as the Keltic and Sommerville boys kept it gentlemanly. A crazy run into the finish saw a DQ 'd CCB rider (no standing in the last kilo boys), and guys skillfully fighting for a bit of position. Everybody seemed to sit up a bit at the very end which gave Guido a chance to blitzkrieg to the end by himself. Good job!
On the hill, an early attack from a rider in red(?!) made Hunter chase with Little T sitting in third, Chris B fourth. With 300 meters to go, Little T was easily able to pop around all of them for the win. Chris getting 2nd.
