Steve B was not going to be caught, and everyone knew it.
For some reason, a couple of the Magenta guys persisted in riding as though there was a need to defend the gap and discourage the chase. The pace turned silly-lazy for a while. The competitive element of the ride was over at that point. There were no more sprints to take. No more points to give out.
Everyone rolled thru the detour in orderly fashion. The speed picked up a bit going down Blacks Rd but that was gravity talking. As everyone made the right-hander to get back on course before the Greenhouse climb, Steve B came charging by, determined to create Gap2.0.
Seems he did the normal route, riding thru the road construction and then back at the breakaway until meeting the shortcutting peleton. At this point everyone was throttled down and piddling (pittling?) along and so Steve rolled off and up the sprint climb alone.
At the bottom of the climb, Chris C was apparently done with his extended recovery interval, got fed up with the "blocking" antics, and yelled at Brian O to move out of the way so that those who would actually like to ride bikes could do so. Brian nodded in acknowledgement with his dominant butt-cheek but didn't quite relent either. That continued up the climb at an impressive 250w until Chris went out of his way to push, curb, or ride Brian O into the yellow line. Only problem is a car was oncoming. The car had to brake, hit the horn, and Brian had to do a bit of evasive maneuvering.
That started the shouting match between Chris C and the CW guys. Thank goodness everyone was rolling forward or else they'd be punches thrown.
Oh wait, there were punches "thrown" anyway. As the two jawed, Brian may or may not have taken a swing at Chris C. And then he may have tried to crash Chris in a subsequent corner.
That's how it ended up. Sure the pace got going near the finish and there was some sprinting at the end, but it was all over-shadowed by the dust up that should have never happened.
Steve B racked up 5 points for definitely being the first to the Greenhouse climb, regardless of the route he took, and 2 bonus points for not getting a flat in the gravel construction section.
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