Early Excitement and a Dissed Pack
There was a normal sized group out tonight for the ride. Even so, the peleton continues to roll past equal-sized and even greater groups returning south on the New Haven ride. As riders graduate from that speed, they will be moving up to the "big leagues" and the SGR.
A couple new faces out on SGR today: Yalies Alex Popescu and Andrew Suzuki. Along with Mike McGinley for the second week in a row, and Peter Morgan, the ride was going to be a good one.
Early on, it was Sean Maher pushing the pace. He surged off the front a couple of times, to be roped back in by Dan Smith. Going onto Mountain Road, Sean Maher and Turner French hit the first hill hard and were off the front by the top of the hill. Sensing an opportunity they hit it and were gaining. Most behind were settling in after the first uphill and were in no position to do anything about the gap. One that tried was Hacker. He jumped in pursuit and was making up ground but ultimately would come up a bit short.
Behind Andrew "round tubes are more aero" Suzuki was threading his way thru the pack having been sitting at the back for a km or so. He rocketed off the front to close the gap and took Hunter P with him. Those two would go by Hacker and make their way up to the leaders just past the halfway mark of Mountain Rd. The impressively fast bridging (with a little help from the tail wind) was enough to get Suzuki the KOM on the segment. The four up front went to work together and they just got thru the light on Route 68/70 in semi-acceptable fashion. That was it for the night. The break worked the gap but were never in any real danger of being caught. There was not sprinting up front. Behind the pack would be pushed along by Dan Smith, Peter Morgan, Steve B, and a couple of others. The rest were content to keep it steady fast with predictable turns at the front.
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