July 15th Rhonde

It was a decent night. It certainly was a hot one. Having Ryan go up the road was a good idea. For the record, I think all helmet-less riders on Tuesday should be relegated to either 1. Getting a few minutes up the road and having to do their own thing as Ryan did or 2. Being forced to off the back and not being able to be part of the ride.

A saw a fair amount of attacks, but nothing seemed to really get away. From what I saw, it looked like we lost a few riders heading up Oley Turnpike. Once we hit Mine Rd, I knew it was going to stay together and be a decent sized field sprint. Heading into the S-turn, I knew I was in a bad spot. Dean was holding tempo about 7-10 bike lengths as I was leading the group with Jim right behind me. I knew if Dean attacked and stepped on the pedals, I'd be forced to go, and once I caught him, Jim would counter with about 300 to go. Luckily, I was able to tempo up to Dean and once I caught him, I shot to the left so I could see all the moves and not get caught off guard.

With about 300 to go, John put in a viscous attack that popped a lot of guys. I started to go and Jim countered pretty hard with maybe 200-150 to go. It was a strong move and I tried to get Jim's draft but realized the finish was too close, so I came around on the left and got it on the bike throw.

Good ride guys. See you next week.

well I like to say I was feeling less nostalgic as the main street neutral zone ride went away, I really enjoyed that, but the Jefferson street start was enjoyable so I think we can work that in as tradition now and we can all tell why the route now goes that way to future newbies. I heard a pop and Jerry (Weavers) was done after maybe 1 mile with a flat, so that's crazy maybe we should wait for flats in the neutral zone as riders take the time to get in the training ride. We had a small break before gun club, I think what happened there is a bit of over confidence, when I looked around I knew we had the horsepower to give it a go after Rasta and Nick joined in the fun, and I think we just let up and got a bit disorganized and were easily caught. Anyway it was fun even thought I hit that stupid hole on OLEY TP is that a state road BTW? does anyone know someone at Penndot! Come we gotta have connections to get that fixed!


Cheers,
Alan

Lots of attacks, all good stuff. It's getting to the point where nothing gets away though. Maybe we should just roll directly to Mine Road from the High School and do intervals?

I'm down with sprint intervals.

I agree I like to see breaks make it more often not sure what I can do to help that seems like every time we get 10 seconds the group is on us, oh well. To finish in a break is a goal for me this year(no field sprint ya!) We need to hold 25-26+ in a break but the course has a milllion turns so I believe that hurts break efforts, as lagging riders are more aggressive on the stops and intersections. This is a training ride people, don't bridge up to a break and sit in expecting a free ride to mine road with 5 other riders, if we all hurt for 15-20 miles in a break we can get away.