Tuesday the 5th

 Turbo-Charged Bedlam Fit for a Katana 

Nothing like a good size group and a tailwind to get everybody going fast on a Tuesday night. The ride was headlined by plenty of angels and couple new faces from the Guilford lakes area. Right from the get-go Dillon P and Turner French rolled out quickly but Turner French would come back at the turn off of route 10. Dillon P kept his foot on the gas for a little while just to to give himself a top-notch workout. 

Turning onto Mountain road, Turner French and Chris Sima had a gap but then Andrew Suzuki punched it hard taking along Hunter P. That led to Turner French, Andrew Suzuki and Hunter P ripping down Mountain road with another record-breaking run.

The light at the end of the road route 70 was red giving the field a chance to catch back but the damage had been done. A few guys had dropped off because the tailwind boosted speed was a bit too much to handle, and others were hitting power PRs so that hurts.From there the pace stayed steady onto Moss farms with no major attacks.

Suzuki would continue to terrorize the pack with a couple of big accelerations on the front. the speed on Welch was blistering, with just the main dudes being in a position at the base of the climb to West Street. As the group turned to the sprint, the pace dropped a bit with a few guys taking turns in the wind. Dan Smith, Chris C, Hunter P, Turner French. The headwind + the high the pace left everyone looking to recharge the anaerobic tank. And when the anaerobic tank be dry, it's kinda hard to jump uphill to the sprint. Hunter P kicked off the sprint from the usual 175 meters to go and took it, in front of Turner Frnech who got 2nd. Little T was 3rd.

A short reset after that as the pack rolled downhill and then onto Atwater St. A couple guys rolled off the front (Chris Sima, Rich Nadeau, Matt Wigton, and Joe Rod). Then Turner French jumped up and joined them just before the hill under the highway. Behind, they were all in the crosshairs of a charging Suzuki (doing his best Guido Wolllman impersonation) and Hunter P. Those two made it up the break and then kept it rolling. The light on 322 was red though, and that gave the chasing pack a chance to catch up or else it would have been finito for the breakaway (part 2).

From there things calmed down quite a bit. The pace didn't pick up again until the Greenhouse climb, which itself was not too crazy. Peter Morgan led the pack up nearly the entire way at a stiff pace. Dan Smith got it going with a jump from 300 meters  out. Hunter P was on his wheel and then came around for a brief minute to lead out teammate Stefano P. He had Little T on his wheel so those two duked it out and it was very close at the line. Most points go to Stefano for the underdog award. 

After that the pace reset for the ride back into Hamden. Late in the ride Turner French and George Elias lead a small group off the front on Coleman Rd. The gap going up the twisting hill was 80 meters but once again, Suzuki was cueing up and getting ready to go supernova one last time. He launched it a few hundred meters from the hill, taking just Hunter P with him. The pack behind stretch out and snapped in a couple of places. The two made it up to the leaders with a few guys chasing hard behind. That led to a huge shake up off the front. George Elias, little T, Suzuki, Turner French ripped up the climb on Tuttle. Little T had to cover a gap which popped George from the group, just about the same time that Sean Maher was making the late connection to the 3 up front. Little T, Suzuki, and Turner rolled the downhill with Sean Maher able to use the down to get up to them. From there Suzuki led it out to the base of the spring hill and Little T took it front of Sean. Great ride everyone! 👍