Tuesday the 23rd

 

SGR Rookie Ignites a Proper Showdown

Another good-sized crowd out today for SGR. Once again, the medium loop was chosen at the start. Long loop fans will have to wait for next week or the week after. 

Once the ride started, the pace was decently quick, with accelerations coming nearly right away from Steffen H, Steve B, Brian O, and a couple of others. 

On Mountain Rd Turner French hit the gas and that split off a group of about 7 or 8 of the strongest. The group kept the gas up the series of risers early on Mountain, but the gap would start to come down as enough guys were in the chase to bring the pace up. As the connection was being made, TF surged again, and only New Haven resident Andrew Suzuki stayed with him. Those two got a gap going as there was no immediate response. The gap was about 12 seconds at the light, which everyone got green. The chase was on now, but fewer bodies were willing to bring the pace up on Moss Farms. TF and Suzuki stayed on it and the gap was holding steady at 100 meters. 

The leaders had to do some traffic dodging right the chicane, but that didn't slow them down too much. Going past the industrial park, the gap came down to just a handful of seconds after Sean M had a long pull at the front. Even so, the two up front came into the light with a big enough gap that when they squeaked thru the changing light, the chase had to hold up. That was it for the night. The breakaway was back in sight briefly as the ride came back over 322 in the opposite direction, but once again the peleton had to stop and wait the light out. 

The leaders would roll the rest of the ride together. Behind, the next "action" was Brian O sneaking off the front at the base of the Greenhouse climb/sprint. He had the gap but eased enough to be nearly chased down by Little T right, meaning the two split the points.

Moving to the last part of the ride, Steve and Brian attacked again a couple of times. Sean M did a bunch of work reeling them back in. Steffen H had a solid dig off the front trying to play spoiler going into the final sprint. Steve B and the Little T were able to catch and come around though. Still well-behind the breakaway though for the 4th or 5th week in a row. Next week should be another barn-burner!