Tuesday the 16th

New Faces, same pain.

Leave your checkbooks at home and get your leather on boys, its Throwdown time.... Welcome to the Sleeping Giant Ride…O ten version.... Or if you listen to Chris C's complaining, the "Stop N Shop ride leaving vie-se-vie Sleeping Giant State Park". The Stop n Shop boys were late in getting to the park at 5:30 today. As the ride rolled out, no one was complaining about the lack of bubbles. Lord knows they woulda made it in time if they drove to S.G. instead but then they would lose the male bonding time and the chance to hit on the female staffers at Mr. B's Pizza in Cheshire after the ride.

Anyway, once everyone smelled each other's butts right after turning off of route 10, the ride started up for the season like a freshly tuned chainsaw. Peter P looked good early on, along with Thomas B, Eric M. & Chris C. That was the early group punching it thru Brooksvale Rd. which now barely passes muster as a back country pass, there are so many potholes. Hunter P and Chris Mahoney bridged up but it was short lived. Hacker went to work pushing the pace right after that and like some kind of wise, strong hyena, his work up front signaled the New Haven Pack that it was time to go to work tearing flesh. There were a few strong new haven riders out leaving their mark today. Hopefully we’ll get some help on the names. Black and white Bianci, Jeff W (Devils Gear Rider on a Fuji) big Dude in a white Inova jersey with blue print. Yea yea, its been a while, sorry for forgetting names.

The ride almost had a split coming up to mountain road, but it came back together and slowed a bit on mountain. For the first half of mountain road there was only a few guys doing the work, Chris C, Koski, Jeff W, Hacker, Bianci, Yalie Adam etc. The second half others started to chip in a bit. Dillon P, and Empire Matt among them. The ride went by a cop in waiting, and even though Rondo could have been cited for indecent exposure, there was no harassment from the Po Po ( tonight at least ). It was all together hitting route 70 and the ride got the green light, letting everyone thru.

Once on Moss Farms, the new haven guys were back at it, stringing it out pretty quickly. Once the false flat sections started though, no one took the opportunity to really detonate things with a super effort. So everyone hit the chicane together. There was no real attacks on the hill, but after the corner onto Marion, Hunter P attacked with Black\white bianci and Thomas B. That trio had a gap for the rest of the way down Marion but it was gruppo compacto heading into the industrial park. That’s when the crap really hit the fan.

First it was the Devils Gear rider, kinda just riding off the front as everyone charged thru the intersection of west Johnson and Peck. He rolled back into the group just as Mike McG and Hacker started off the front. That led to those 2 plus black & white bianci and Jacinto (?) with a slight gap turning onto Reinhard. The four hit the bottom of the sprint hill with a 4-5 second gap. Behind, Yalie Adam, Craig Luekens, Peter P and Little T were bringing the rest up. Little T did jump out in pursuit on the hill, but Hacker lit the burners up front, taking along Bianci with him. Little T sailed up and thru all, but was well short of catching Hacker who gets the credit for this one.

Then, with a display that certainly will take several weeks for anyone to top, Hacker continued his assault, no doubt aware that with each 1\8 mile, uphill or down, guys way back were getting spit out with their heads spinning. He stayed away, or at least solidly on the front of the ride for up till route 10 by Maple ave, Along the way getting help from a few guys. Hopefully the ride this year will see more ball busting efforts separating the chaff from the wheat.

The run in to the Stop n Shop hill was fast, but with it all together, Little T was able easily pounce on this one, especially with a little inadvertent lead out from yalie Adam, who rolled up 2nd. Heading thru Cheshire, Hacker and the clearly strong New Haven crew kept it going quickly. The ride turned idiotic as guys were going and chasing full speed, expecting rush hour traffic to magically part for them. The ride went super single file out of sheer necessity and with a couple of red lights eventually split right in half. All the Cheshire Cycle guys were caught up at the red’s. So thusly the ride ended for us much more mellower than it was up in the front group no doubt. Perhaps someone up there can fill in the details of how the ride ended. All in all, a great first tuesday night.

Yea yea the recap is a little brief tonight… .Chalk it up to easing back into the seasin. Oops, I mean season… ( Too much off season “Rondo’s Rage” )