Tuesday the 28th

The Angriest Ride in Connecticut.
Now with Bears!

More drama this week at the SG ride as the ride is starting to feel like an episode of General Hospital. Here are the highlights, and the accompanying darker moments.

     Early on, Kyle C jumped off the front with A-A-Ron Black and Dillon P. Those 3 held a steady gap for a couple of minutes. As the trio approached the corner of Mount Sanford Rd, they breezed thru the intersection without much of a warning for the field, which was close enough to start to roll thru after the leaders. The problem was that a car was bearing down pretty quickly. This put Chris C squarely in the sights of a speeding bumper. Everyone jammed on the brakes, and there was no incident besides the ensuring swearing and top-of-the-lung yelling from Chris C. The intersection is par for the course for the SG ride, Chris' reaction was..... Special.
     After a few seconds though, it was back to riding hard. From there,  A-A-Ron Black was making his presence known with some strong pulls on the front. Aidan C, Mike Frisk, Burgster and Big Red as well. Hunter P jumped off the front as the ride got close to route 68 but the field was with him, and the light was green. That gave Burgster a chance to roll off a gap going onto Moss Farms. He stayed out front for a while, with Hacker, Chris C, Big Red, the Senryak, and a couple of others giving chase.
Heading onto Marion, Burgster would go again, and he held a gap for another good chunk of time before being reeled back in. As the ride stopped at the light on route 322, Jimmy C came up to Chris C and gave him some stern but friendly "advice." It was something about not yelling in the Bedding Plant Capital of CT, micro-dosing shrooms, Boston accents, and using sailer's language on what is clearly dry land. Chris C was having non-o-that. The 2 nearly got into fisticuffs, which anyone will tell you is hard to pull off when you're trying to clip in after a red light. It was another awkward moment for most in attendance. Hunter P and Burgster recognized the chance to capitalize and attacked right away, although the field was right there. Once onto Mount Vernon, Burgster kept on the offensive, and he was chased down primarily by Big Red.
       From there, the ride went into cruise control mode. Going up the false flat section Quadzilla attacked, taking Hunter P with him. Those 2 tore off a gap quickly and held it for a few hundred meters until a big bear on the left side of the road scared Quad Z nearly out of his SPD's. The bear quickly scampered back in the woods on his side of the road, but it brought the breakaway to an end.
Heading to the turn onto Welch Rd, Burgster would take off again in search of the long ball. He didn't get too far until a strong group started pulling him back. Chris C, Aidan C, The Full Nalini, a new guy in a blue kit (?), Hacker, and a couple of others. Still, Burggie was content to push the pace, and he took a slight lead going thru the corner onto West St. Once the front 10 guys were through, Aidan C ramped up the speed just enough to close the gap. He had 4 or 5 guys on his wheel. The light before the sprint point was red though, with 2 cars stacked up. The front 5 guys went thru slowly, but the sprint was slowed down for sure because of it. Hunter P jumped out to get it ahead of Ben Bruce. Burgster kept going after the sprint, and he would soon be joined by Ben Bruce and Hunter P. That trio just made it through the light by the Target, and the field, right behind them, stopped. That was all those 3 needed. The chase would get held up briefly by one more light and the leaders would disappear into the evening light.
         The Stop n Sprint point was neutralized as the leaders rolled through together, and the finish was null due to the road milling taking place 3\4's of a mile from the usual end at Shepard Ave.

       Something of a forgettable ride folks. Unless of course, you have stock in the Cheshire Cycle Racing Team, which is working on a 2-week breakaway streak.