Tuesday the 11th

Welcome to the Sleeping Giant Ride... 2014!

    The Winter That Never Dies let down its guard a bit tonight and allowed for a great first ride of the season. The early departure time meant that the number of guys out tonight was on the light side. Maybe 15 rolled out and headed north to see what awaited them.
    Right from the get-go, Chris C and Mike McG made it clear that the ride would be crisp. They kept the pace up thru the first few miles off route 10 along with help from Joe K, and Hunter P. The first real dig came after the comer onto North Brooksvlae, where Mike McG and Chris C started getting a gap open. A new guy in a Berlin Bike jersey (Rob) and the Gibertoni sewed it up as the small group headed toward Mountain Rd. There were a couple of early surges on Mountain Rd that ended up splitting a small group off the front. Mike McG, Joe K, Jacinto, Hunter P, Chris C and Rob. They charged on as the rest of the peleton, only about 8 or 9 riders, couldnt find the ponies to bridge the gap. The light on route 68/70 was red or else the lead group would have going going gone.
    The back-together-peleton cruised down Moss Farms without much fanfare. Ditto for up the hill onto Marion and into the industrial park. Turning onto West Johnson, Chris C jumped and was allowed to go free. As soon as the climbing ended, Joe K and Mike McG went to closing it down. Chris Sailed thru the four-way intersection while the group had to pause. That allowed the gap to go up a bit but soon after, Joe K was beating down the door to catch the front. He brought the gap to a handful of meters and Mike McG and Jacinto were easily able to take the rest and by the corner for Reinhard, those 2 were going up and past to by themselves. Mike McG let Jacinto roll thru the sprint point first as Chris C and Hunter P slowly were creeping back up to them by the time the corner came up.
   The 4 kept the pressure up and the already sizable gap to the rest went even further out. Heading down Peck ln, it was clear that the leaders would stay out and the chase behind was ont going to happen. From there, the group would pick up a couple of short-cutting riders and motor down route 10. For the Stop n Shop sprint, Chris C jumped off the front and was not chased. The group sailed back into Hamden with no further sprinting. The peleton behind also rolled in uneventfully, as it was shrunken quite a bit by riders peeling off in Cheshire (Joe K, Gregg F. etc).

It's good to back out there. Nice ride everyone! Let's hope the weather cooperates next week in the same fashion.