Tuesday the 12th

 SGR is back in action!

There was a decent turnout for SGR#1 (short loop edition), with about 25-30 riders at the start. Naturally, the Central Wheelies (Wheelers, Wheelites?) had the numbers forming about 1/3 of the group at the start and about 1/2 by the end.

The pace at the beginning was pretty reasonable. Everyone seemed in good spirits and the weather was about as perfect as you could hope for, especially for mid-March in New England.

Many of the guys out tonight were getting the outdoor bikes back into shape, and there were many mechanical issues to be had. Right at the start, on the ride up Rt. 10, there was a loud clang in the back and someone commented that (apparently) Soft-spoken Paul's wheel had broken a spoke. Heading up to Mountain Road, Rusty's gear kept slipping and catching and he had to grind up the short little hills for a bit. And on the ride down Cheshire Road, TK broke his saddle and had to ride the rest of the way either standing or gently perched on it - avoiding any potholes, of which there are aplenty. (If you follow him on Strava, you can see his picture.) And there were several of us with very squeaky chains and rubbing gears. Christian D's high-pitched chain was a contender for the most annoying but that's probably because he (and probably everyone else) heard it the whole ride. And no, he won't be pouring vegetable oil on the chain as a CW rider begrudgingly suggested, but he will use some chain lube (for the first time in about 4 months) or maybe it's time to wax that sucker.

As mentioned, in the first half, there were a few attempts at breakaways, but they were either brought back pretty quickly or thwarted by a traffic light. It seemed Central Wheel would have a rider attack while the rest helped block. But Crowell and his CVC cronies along with some of the CCR regulars did the necessary work to bring those back. Some of us just were happy to sit in the pack and watch the fireworks unfold.

We shed a few riders along the way, but it was pretty much gruppo compacto as we turned onto Cheshire Road. Just a bit down Cheshire Road, Turner F. from Central Wheel attacked. Up until then, Steffen H. from CCR had not done any attacks but had been willing to help bring breakaways back only to have someone counter attack once they bridged back up. Having had enough of that, the big German jumped on Turner's wheel and the two of them sped off. The CW squad did their usual tactic of riding in the front at a tempo pace blocking any half-hearted attacks. The CCR boys weren't going to help with the chase, leaving it mostly up to the CVC riders.

Either they didn't have the legs, were recovering after the last chase, or didn't think the two of them would last very long, but they let them go. And we all watched as the two of them rode off into the sunset never to be caught again.

Not for a lack of trying. Once the lead had built up quite a bit, going up to the Greenhouse sprint, there was a small breakaway group that included Little T, Crowell, and some CW riders. Little T won the intermediate sprint for third place. For anyone keeping score for the season, the jury is out on who won first, but since Steffen H. commented that Turner held up on that climb to let him rejoin, the money is on Turner getting first and Steffen second.

The chase continued down the Cheshire/Wallingford border while the grupetto now down to about 10 riders at best gently and without any urgency pursued the leaders.

In the final sprint, Turner got first, Steffen second, and a bit further back, Little T outnumbered by a crew of CW riders again was the best of the rest for third place. And for anyone worried, TK delicately made it with the back of the main field on his broken saddle - the darkness made it that much harder to avoid the potholes.

Enjoy the weather folks! Hopefully, next week is as nice and has an even bigger turnout. The days are getting longer!