A running account of the "race without an entry fee"..... The Tuesday night ride

Tuesday the 29th

    Right from the gun, Chris C was out to make sure no one was taking it easy tonight. He rode off for a bit before the other McG..... The Bryan one, took off in pursuit. Keith Mullaly and Hunter P joined up and that chase shot up and joined Chris C quickly. The rest of the field had a chance to catch up thru the crap road section .
    The Other McG kept things going past that, and really, for much of the ride. Nice job Bryan! After that Joe K rolled off the front as other Cheshire riders patrolled the front for opportunities to keep him out there. By Mountain Rd, it was together again. A group got away by the end of mountain road led by French Casey, and Ben Bruce, but the light was red and that gave all a chance to re-group.
    French Casey kept it up on Moss Farms with Chris C chasing, but for the most part it was a controlled pace toward Marion. Up the hill past the chicane, The Gibertoni jumped out, again with Chris C leading the rest up and through. The next attack was up the road going past the industrial park.... French Casey took advantage of the mellow pace and attacked. He took along Chris C, Ciocci, hunter P, Little T, and a couple of others. There was little cohesion up front and so the field came back up. Little T tried again on his own but by the light it was all together.
     The Gibertoni tried to get off the front past the light with one or 2 others, but traffic at the corner for Mount Vernon slowed them down. Once onto Mount Vernon a small group got off the front led by Hunter P but as Chris C led a couple guys up the front slowed down a bit and that led to a re-shuffle up front. A new group went off ( Mike McG, The Other McG, Hunter P, Chris C ). That group stayed off to midway up the false flat. No one took advantage of the catch though, and instead, it stayed steady into a long section of road that has been graded pretty rough. A couple of riders lost contact as the front kept on the throttle. It wasn't overly fast, but if you were worried about the bone jarring enough to slow down, you were playing major catch-up once the construction ended.
     French Casey drilled it and was allowed to roll and he took advantage by building up a solid lead of about 10 seconds turning onto Welch. He kept on the gas but was eventually be caught by the end start of the hill. Chris C, Mike McG, Joe K, Little T, Hunter P, Ben Bruce, even a couple of new faces rolled up the hill, looking to be up front for the sprint. Mike McG drilled it as a lead out, with Joe K and Little T in the best position to make good with it. Joe K started the sprint but Little T was able to come around with time to spare.
      The trip down the hill was uneventful... Except for French Casey almost getting nailed by a car leaving the gas station at the bottom of West St.

Mind the traffic laws everyone...... (within reason of course)

     The Gibertoni was up the road again heading under the highway. Tall John was leading the chase and when it was all back together, Chris C jumped up the hill. He was joined by a couple of others but traffic at the next intersections slowed everyone down. Bryan McGill was again pushing the pace going onto Peck Ln. From the ride down and up peck was standard stuff. Chris C, Rory D and Ciocci lead a group away from the rest on the false flat along with a couple of others. The gap was going up when Mike McG put in a monster pull to get across to the lead group by the corner of route 10. That group stayed away up to the top of the hill where a red light brought everyone back together. The rest of the ride to the sprint was fast thanks to Guido, French Casey, Young Mullaly, Chris C, Rob Dux, and a couple of others. Little T had little problem jumping away to get the sprint.
     For the finale, Little T took top honors again in front of a hard charging Gibertoni. That's it...

Good ride everyone!

3 comments:

Guido said...

As the saying goes, all good things come to an end... Though in this case it might actually be two ends.

As some of you might have heard, my term at the big blue Y is coming to an end. I will be leaving New Haven by the end of August, returning to Europe to take up a position in Austria, in the middle of the Alps, of all places. (google "Innsbruck" if curious)

The SG Euro fraction will take an additional hit with the departure of Jacinto, who also is going back to Europe mid August. (you guys are going to face an authenticity crisis if French Casey remains the last Euro link at the TWC)

Anyway, Hunter and the Cheshire Cycling Crew have come up with this great idea of having a post SG ride farewell bash: beer, pizza, spandex, gold medals, podium girls, velonews tweets etc.

So mark your calendar for the August 12th ride, two weeks from today.
If you ride your bike home, bring a light.
If you drive, don't drink.
If you drink, don't drive.
If you pull in the wind, you get an extra slice of pizza.
If you let me win the finish, you get a hug.

This is not my farewell speech. Yet. I keep the sentimentalities for later. You are still stuck with me for 4 more weeks. And someone please get Ron out of retirement. Just for one ride. Crowell's eff-yous just don't match the original.

Thanks for reading,

G

Anonymous said...

I for one will miss you greatly. The German greeting each Tuesday was a hi-lite of my ride. Unfortunately, I will be out of town on he 12th, so have a beer for me. I'll talk to you over the next couple of weeks at least. Good luck with all you do and please stay in touch with us meatheads back here in CT.

Chris C.

Ben said...

I don't know Guido, better to go back to Europe than to meet this end. Btw, when did they start filing a movie about Ron, anyway?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfN3uxk-vRs