The SG ride waits for no man... Except
Jacinto, on his last ride with us...
The rain held off for the 20-25 riders who came out for the ride
tonight. Everyone was keen on sending off Jacinto and Guido in style.
Jacinto moves back to Portugal on Friday. Surely it can be said that
he made the most of the weekly SG Ride, not least of all because he
was a true regular, but rather because he added to the ride,
and didn't just sit in.
We'll all be fortunate if just one rider can pick up the slack.
Right from the get go, Guido was quick to get to the front. Initially
he had along Jeff Weaver and Pescatore for help and for a moment
early on, the trio was making headway on the backroads. Soon after a
couple of guys (The Full Nalini, Dillon P, Hacker, Mike McG, Hunter
P, etc) started chasing in earnest and it was all back together. Getting onto Mount Sanford, Hacker took to the front along
with Nuemotion and those 2 got a gap within a few seconds. Young
Suto, and Hunter P were was quick to get involved and soon a select
group was chasing down the leaders as everyone barreled toward
Mountain Rd.
There was no real gaps heading onto Mountain but the pack was stretched out due to the smaller field and the fast pace set by the
chase. Hunter P hit the gas on the first set of risers on Mountain
and split off a gap that Young Suto, Hacker and Mike McG were able to
add to. Nuemotion came up a few seconds later and then Ben Bruce made
it up as well. That lead group kept the pace high for the next 750
meters and onto the next set of the ramps.
Behind, the job of chasing fell on Guido. As he poured out the power,
no one was able (or willing) to chip in, and the helter-skelter chase
wasn't going to bring back the break very easily. Up front, the lead
group actually got the light on route 68/70, which all but sealed the
deal. The lead group (Hacker, Nuemotion, Hunter P, Ben Bruce, Mike
McG, Young Suto) got one bigger as The Full Nalini was able to
squeeze thru the light and latch onto the break.
With the light in the break's favor, all that was needed was teamwork
and a sharing of the pace-making, which is indeed what took place.
With a smaller group behind and even fewer to match the Kaiser's
pace, the break would not normally be caught.... However......
As the peleton made its way thru the chicane, Jacinto broke a spoke.
A lengthy repair job kept a group of about 7 or 8 stopped for a
long time. An equal sized group kept going. One of the riders waiting
was The Sernyak, who soon after getting going again, got hit with a
flat, adding even more time to the wait. Once that was taken care of
the group decided to shortcut and ride against the route to meet up
with the rest in a reasonable time frame. Although it was encouraged
that the group should NOT get involved with the break, if it was
still going when it was met.
Way up the road, the break wasn't without its own incidents. First a
driver pulled out in front on Marion and rode along at 20-25 mph,
just off the front of the break, even hitting the brakes at a couple
of spots to make sure to stay close and in the way. Despite
yelling and arm-waving the driver was not going anywhere. Hunter P
rolled up alongside, banging the rear panel, which only served to
piss off the occupants more and led to a shouting match.... Tho the
passenger in the car was dead-on in his assumption... Hunter P can be pretty
“douche-y”. Incident #2 for the break happened with 250 meters to
go for the midpoint sprint. The group had been trading pulls well,
but on Marion, Hacker attacked, with Nuemotion and Young Suto
responding. It was enough to un-hitch The Full Nalini and Ben Bruce.
After the hill and the corner, the leaders hit the head wind and
slowed to regroup. Nuemotion jumped hard from a good distance out and
as Young Suto was going to match the attack, his chain dropped. Mike McG,
Hacker, and Hunter P were all close enough to notice and no one
advanced past without first making sure the chain was back on.
Nuemotion got to the sprint point first without a chase from behind.
Those five would re-group and keep going with the break.
A short time later on Atwater St, the Jacinto/Guido group had
actually ran into the 2nd group on the road, who also
decided to make shortcut. So it was back together for the peleton for
a short moment and then the break came steam-rolling by. So before
the ride went back over 322, it was pretty much all together again.
Guido, full of piss and vinegar at this point, wasted no time in
turning the screws on the rest, getting gaps on Peck and then on
Route 10 along with Hacker.
For the Stop n Sprint, Hacker got it clean over a 2 or 3 others. The
ride back into Hamden was uneventful. In the smaller group, Guido
charged clear for the finale with only Jeff Weaver to answer in the final 300
meters. The 2 went down to the wire with Weaver staying on the gas
just a little while longer.After that 5 pizza's were eaten quickly (Thank you Dana R and Julio L) and no Haribo gummy bears
made it out alive...
Good ride everyone. Again, best wishes and safe travels to Jacinto
Pereira. If there is a crazy, unruly, fast group ride sprint to
win in Portugal, he will surely get it.
23 comments:
Hi guys,
There were a lot of firsts for my last ride! But always fun! Thanks for waiting for me and thanks Cheshire Cycles for preparing the end-of-summer party. As told, I’m going back home but hopefully will keep in touch with some of you. Wherever I’ll go afterwards I hope to find another TWC. If not, I'll make one (with imaginary sprints where the guy at the front decides where the line is, obviously) just to have something to look for on Tuesday evenings!
The SGR was the place where I basically learned to ride/race my bike without crashing, while being shouted at. You can't beat that! I had lots of fun and pain, met outgoing guys, serious racers and mostly friendly people here. Underneath all the alpha-male attitude there are lots of love and respect for one another. This balance is what makes it great, imho. I'll miss the ride and I'll miss everyone that makes it what it is.
Take care and ride safely.
Sorry, the link above might not work if you don't have a flickr account.
This one should work for everyone:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/113319838@N03/78a4hK/
G
Obregodo Hacinto.
couple of posts back...
what is this authenticity cricis we will now experience? You mean us americans are not for real without you? Maybe you yale / us subsidized welfare transplants were not authentic! We will continue what we have done before your vacation here. Yeah we are authentic!!!!!!
Looking at those pictures was great. Sorry I missed the send off. Jacinto and Guido, you will be missed. When did Ron turn into Farmer Brown??? WTF!!! He moved out to Oxford and now he looks like he works on a dairy farm.
Chris C.
Re: authenticity
Please read again.
The comment was a joke about FRENCH Casey, who is USA breed through and through but carries the nickname FRENCH Casey. I was pointing out that the European "visitors" or "guests" or whatever you want to see us (Jacinto and me, Thomas is already gone) are going back which leaves FRENCH Casey as the only "Euro"-link. It's a joke, which I'm sure wasn't missed by everyone.
As for the Yale/welfare thing, lets borrow from Rondo: file and folder.
G
Guido... best of luck in your future. However, we are still authentic though Casey is not french. We are legit and authentic by our own right, Be well!
There is no such thing as an 'authentic' American, anon. That is both the point and irony of Americanism: we are proud to be "a nation of immigrants" but are xenophobic as hell. Just keep working on grammar and syntax and everything will fall into place.
grammar and syntax police...fuck you
Wow! You missed the simple point. This ride is authentic and legitimate regardless of where the riders are from. Bike riding in the US is not inferior to bike riding elsewhere. I think Guido will agree.
o.k., it seems like I unintentionally have stirred something up with my comment from two weeks ago. So let me try to clarify:
At no point was this about the SG ride not being authentic, or Americans not being authentic. I was referring to the fact that the last two remaining Europeans on the ride were leaving, and then saying as a joke that leaves French Casey as the only Euro-link on the ride, which isn't really authentic (no accent etc…). The ride is fine with or without foreigners, it was never about saying that the ride is not authentic without a heavy German or a hairy Portuguese. Not sure where that interpretation came from. Also, the whole premise of the joke doesn't fly anyway since CBC Sasha is still around.
I spent one third of my life here in New Haven, half of which were spiced up by the Sleeping Giant ride. I wouldn't have become the rider I am (or was) without being pushed to my limits every week.
I - and almost everyone who has left - will miss the ride more than the ride will miss us. Opinions always differ but for me it never mattered if the riders next to me were left or right, up or down, hot or cold, 401K or 420.
I have maybe two or three rides left before my departure and look forward to every one of them.
G
What??? The Europeans leave and we lose timely blogs? Communists!
There goes authenticity. The Germans are all about being punctual and authentic!
First off Guido, why are you trying to explain yourself. Fuck em if they can't take a joke. I say the only authentic ones left are those of us who don't have a Yale affiliation. There, take that!
Let the fuck you Crowell's begin!
Chris C.
By the way, where's the write-up from last Tuesday's ride????
Chris C.
Capitalism, and its handmaiden colonialism, started in Europe, both of which spawned this crappy bourgeois experiment we call, "'Merica." OK, so one major strike against Europe. However communism started in Europe and they have far better cycling, too, so in the end it all balances out. Oh, and Karl Marx was German . . .
Thanks professor. Now can we go to the Daily Cafe and get a couple of Cafe Americano's?
If only the daily cafe was still there. Gentrification is a constituent feature in the geography of Capital, but a particularly virulent one at Yale.
Dude, I barely made it out of 8th grade. What does that mean? And, oh yeah, FU CROWELL!
Guido, Jacinto - Thank you for many memorable SGR.
It simply means that as fixed capital matures its yields diminishes. Capital therefore physically leaps elsewhere producing new spaces, places, geographies, imaginaries, and commodities. Yet the irony is that as capitalism has matured, Capital leaps not to pristine spots of 'natural resources' but rather places left destitute, especially by colonialism. However one can see this closer to home as well. Detroit is a prime example. Auto industries moved leaving behind an absolute mess, but now investors are sinking money into the City because there is profitability in the ashes of the old.
Neil Smith called this the zig-zag theory of Capital.
But in this article, Geographer David Harvey takes note of Yale.
http://newleftreview.org/II/53/david-harvey-the-right-to-the-city
the ride does not exist while Hunter is away acting like a shop owner who actually makes a living.
where's this week's update...inquiring minds want to know.
I was fast and you were slow. There was a crash. Thats all.
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