Sunday January 30th

So, we had our first SGR Club ride race this morning, 8AM, early for some, late for others, a decent compromise. The start was the same as a regular race - right in the starting pen with a countdown banner. Nice. A bit more race-like than a meetup.

We had 8 riders: Hunter P., Steffen H., Steve B., Christian D., Dana R., Dan S., Erin B., and Brian O.  (Proper nicknames forthcoming by Huntiecakes.)

Someone (Erin?) suggested just before the banner drop that we drop the neutral flag at 3 miles. When the banner started though someone didn't quite get the memo and started to ride off the front right away. Not going super hard but not in the neutral zone either. All fair, we "chased" down the rider slowly. 

Hunter P chose the Dust in the Wind route. Not a bad choice, a bit of climbing, a dirt loop (flats are not an issue at least), just around 1.5 hours. But it does start with the Titan's Grove climb. A neutral start until the top of that climb would be great. It would give everyone a chance to get warmed up and give more riders a chance to stay with the group longer as there is a long descent and flat section leading to the Jungle circuit. Just saying...

As it was, the pace up the climb was a bit of a decent effort and we dropped a rider before he even had a chance to get warmed up. Hunter dropped back to help out but eventually made chase to catch back on.

At the top, Christian made the idiotic move to check his Discord feed to see if anyone from the group was online to chat. Nobody was. But when he was done, he realized he had been gapped. So, instead of cruising down the hill and recovering he had to make chase the whole descent.

By the bottom, Hunter and Brian, who had also dropped back for a bit to help, had bridged back up. And the pace stayed relaxed heading towards the climb up to the Jungle entrance. On that climb up the hill to the bridge, Steffen put in a solid effort and got a bit of a gap. Christian and Brian dug deep and got back on his wheel. Hunter and Steve followed just a tad behind. Dan and Erin weren't having any of it and took it at more of a Sunday ride pace, smart move.

Just after crossing the bridge and heading into the turn towards the glowing green entrance to the Jungle area, Hunter P came across along with Steve but Hunter refused to let up. He just continued to ride on. The rest of us unwisely just let him. But hopefully having him do solo effort out there alone would tire him out (it didn't).

The four were content to let him get a decent gap but after crossing the rope bridge they started to bring the gap back. By the turn-around they were essentially on him. But Hunter still managed to cross the gate in first, with Brian just behind. For those that don't know the course, halfway along the Jungle circuit is a finishing gate, it is a perfect intermediate sprint as it is essentially the turn-around point.

A short cool down followed, but it was quickly destroyed when Brian went on the attack, hard. Before we left the Jungle, he had a good 10-second lead. It took a long time on the flats before that gap was brought down. Solid effort - and the dude wasn't even on a Tron bike like everyone else. It looked like a gravel bike (which would explain the gap in the jungle but not how it held up once we left the jungle). Heading to the second pass up the Titan's Grove, the group was still Brian, Hunter, Steffen, Steve, and Christian. After some goading from Hunter, Christian made a poor attack attempt on the initial part of the climb. The rolling hills helped keep the chase from getting a rhythm. And he managed a gap of about 8 seconds before the main climb came up. But it wasn't enough. Hunter and Brian put it in 5th gear while Christian was stuck in 1st. And they slowly started to bring that gap down, leaving Steffen and Steve to eat their dust. Halfway up, with about a minute to go, Christian saw the writing on the wall and eased up. He was passed with about 200m to the top. Not sure who got the points at the top of that climb but it wasn't Christian. Stuck in no-man's land, Christian had the option to try to chase down the mad riders up front or ease up and wait for the Steves. He sensibly opted for the latter.

Hunter and Brian took turns pulling up front on the Tempus Fugit portion and were never seen again by the other three. Eventually Hunter won the final sprint to the line. Meanwhile Steffen, Steve, and Christian were doing turns at pulling in a TTT attempt but as the gap opened up ahead, that cooperation quickly ended. After a gap opened up while Christian was doing a pull, he realized the truce was gone and rode off ahead forcing Steve to eventually chase back on while Steffen rode his draft.  As we approached the finishing sprint, Christian did his best to set a hard non-sprinting pace to force Steve to go a little harder to stay on the wheel and letting Steffen sit in a nice third wheel position, perfect. With 300m to go, Steve took off but Steffen was right on his wheel and zipped around him with about 50m to go... getting bronze for the morning.

Legs are now thoroughly sore for the day. So, who's up for joining the race with no entry-fee NEXT Sunday morning? Invite your friends, your enemies, even Crowell!