Tuesday the 5th

The rain spares the SG ride this week

    It was a smaller than usual group out tonight, but everyone was giddy over the fact that the rain held off. Soon into the ride, Alan sped off the front when everyone was still easing into the ride. Soon after, a trio of Chris C, The Full Nalini, and Little T jumped off in pursuit. Alan turned onto Mountain Rd with a 50-meter gap to the trio, which had a 50 meter gap of their own. Behind, the Cheshire guys were just getting started with protecting the front. Halfway down Mountain Rd, with the 3 chasers closing in on Alan, Hunter P jumped hard across the gap, and all 5 came together at the same time. The gap stayed there until the light on route 68, which was red.
     Alan stayed on it once onto Moss Farms, and he was joined by Kyle C. Those 2 kept the gap going all the way past the chicane, where they were finally tracked down by Chris C, Little T, and a couple of others. The whole group rolled together for a little bit, but soon after Alan was back off the front racing towards the light on 322. He'd have Ben Bruce along for company this time, but the light was red.
     Onto Mount Vernon and Alan was again off the front, helped to a gap by teammates who were not pulling thru the front very hard. He'd slowly get pulled back in a kilometer later, with Chris C, Rob Dux, Rustico and a couple of others chipping away at the gap. That let Joe K counter-attack before the false flat section. There was a hard headwind that slowed the chase down. A little while later Alan jumped across the gap. Again there was no organized chase behind them and the gap went up. Chris C put in a sturdy pull but when it was just CCR guys slowly pulling through, he tossed in his hat and the gap went up to a big 20 seconds by the corner of Welch.
     From there the 2 leaders worked together to cement the gap ahead of the sprint point, though Joe would let Alan roll off solo to make sure he got the points. Behind, Little T and then Chris C made strong jumps towards the sprint point but each had 3 CCR guys following. Alan took the sprint and kept rolling. He made it through a light whereas the pack had to stop. Then another red light slowed the chase. When the ride was rolling and with Alan out of sight, everyone was back at it, attacking and countering, this time, with a tailwind.
     Heading through Cheshire, Little T would jump off the front and then catch a light. The peleton stopped or slowed for EVERY light on route 10 except two.
Great ride everyone! You know what they say... You have to fight fire.... With fire.