Yes, it started out a bit chilly but warmed right up (hence the name of this ride!) – especially with all the action towards the overall points series. It was a great day of riding ending up with beautiful spring-like conditions. There were three attack zones in today’s ride. Tria Market with a show of force took 1st-4th in the first attack zone on Camp Winnataska with Wes Douglas edging out teammates Sammy Flores, Brian Toone (me), and Darryl Seelhorst. Mike Powell rounded out the top five. The attack zone started out with an early attack by Darryl, a counter attack by Amy Gravlee, another counter by me, followed by John Close taking a flyer. After the turn onto Winnataska everything was pretty much together until Morgan Ramey launched one of his massive power attacks. The Tria boys slowly brought it back, led out the sprint, and ended up taking the first four positions!

The second attack zone was complicated. Darryl had flatted at an inopportune time so he was out for this one. Jim Brock and one other rider got things started early in the attack zone with Terry chasing hard to bring them back. Then a little while later Morgan hit out again with a hard attack that only Jim and Wes Douglas were able to latch onto. Morgan drove the move like a machine, but then Darrell OQuinn and Mike Powell moved to the front and laid it all down to bring them back. At about that time Jeff Cloar launched a strong attack on the last hill before the sprint, but OQuinn was having none of it and brought it back at the start of the sprint. I ended up taking the sprint with Terry close behind for second and then I’m not exactly sure what the placings behind me were as I was pretty delirious from the sprint. The weird thing is I remember talking to somebody afterwards and I had all the placings straight in my head but I have completely forgotten who I was talking to and what the placings were! Here is what I have right now, please correct as necessary in the comments (thanks!)…

Attack Zone #2 (Sterrett)
1st – me
2nd – terry
3rd – mike
4th – wes
5th – jim

For the final attack zone, Morgan Ramey put the hurt on everyone with a strong early attack. Tria moved to the front to get things moving, but then Mike Powell came pulling through and closed the gap substantially. A good rotation got moving in the group and Morgan was brought back right before the climb. Alvin put in a strong counter move that gapped everyone on the climb. Terry led the chase up the hill closing the gap and in the process dropping everyone but me, Wes, Darryl and Alvin once we caught him. With strength in numbers, Tria was able to take 1st-3rd (Darryl, Wes, Me) followed by Terry and Alvin.

Attack zone #3 (Cemetery Hill)
1st – Darryl
2nd – Wes
3rd – Brian
4th – Terry
5th – Alvin

The women’s competition is still close as ever with 1st and 2nd separated only by a point. Amy Gravlee moved into 1st one point ahead of Terri Jones by winning the first two attack zones with Terri following in second. Terri reversed the order on the last one taking the climb up Cemetery Hill. Deanna entered the mix, too, taking third in the first two attack zones.

For the men, Darryl and I are tied for first with Terry Duran only two points behind in third. Sammy Flores and Jim Brock round out the top 5. Check it out here: overall series standing

Again, I am a little shaky about the ordering on the second attack zone so please comment or email me with the correct finish order for that zone (I apologize in advance to whoever I have goofed up and left off or gotten out of order).

Today’s BBL ride was canceled due to the inclement, cold, rainy Belgian weather. Unofficially, we had a handful of riders survive a 50 mile, 5000 feet of climbing version of the hill loop. No point were awarded today so the series overall remains looking like this:

Men
1 – Darryl Seelhorst (Tria Market) 24 pts
2 – Terry Duran (BBC/Tristar) 23 pts
3 – Jim Brock (Bob’s Bikes/Alabama Masters) tied with Brian Toone (Tria Market) 20 pts

Women
1 – Amy Gravlee (Team Medplan) and Terri Jones (Team Medplan) tied for first 25 pts
3 – Katie Curtis 18 pts

Hopefully next week’s weather will be better, but rain or shine come on out and enjoy the fun!!!

With the arctic cold swooping in from the north and west, the BBL ride was delayed until high noon today. Even with the delayed start time and frigid temps, we still had a pretty good turnout today with another exciting battle for points. The pace was pretty fast throughout the ride. Congrats to all who rode and survived the winter blast!

Here’s how the attack zones played out… Terry blew the whistle immediately after 78 veered to the right and like a cannonball fired out of a cannon, Darryl Seelhorst launched himself off the front. Lennie worked his way to the front and then attacked hard to bridge up to his teammate Darryl. The two of them began to put time on the peloton that hesitated like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming tractor trailer. Never quite out of the sight, the leading duo had to give everything they had to try to stay away for the nearly 7 mile attack zone! Meanwhile, a series of attacks and moves in the peloton saw a few people get close — the most promising moves included Pat Allison launching off the front and making it halfway across the gap before the peloton reeled him back in. Then two more riders slipped off the front with less than a mile to go with me and Sammy Flores patrolling the front of the group to make sure Darryl and Lennie stayed away. With 500 meters to go, Darryl and Lennie had locked in the first two spots and it looked like 3rd and 4th was locked up too, but then I led out the sprint and we quickly gobbled up the late move with me taking 3rd, Terry close behind for 4th, and Chris Allison charging hard for 5th.

Zone 1
Darryl Seelhorst
Lennie Moon
Brian Toone
Terry Duran
Chris Allison

For the second attack zone, we moved the finish to the Rock Ridge Rd sign at the top of the Cemetery Hill climb. Terry blew the whistle shortly after turning onto Hwy 78 from Rex Lake Rd meaning the attack zone was just under 4 miles. The pace picked up fast and we moved along with a few riders trying to get away early. The group wasn’t having it and we made it to the bottom of the Cemetery Hill climb pretty much together. Terry put in a hard attack at the bottom which I covered, but without hesitating Terry attacked again and then another time. The strong group of riders that was left wasn’t about to be dropped so far into the ride though, and a group of maybe 10 was still together by the time we crossed I-459 to setup for the Rock Ridge Rd sprint. Darryl launched the first move about 1km out, but was marked closely by Terry. I didn’t like the odds with Terry not being motivated to pull so I attacked hard to join up. With the group nearly splintered, Pat Allison put in a massive dig, but Terry and I were both able to catch onto Pat’s wheel. Then a second or two later, I came around on Pat’s left and Terry came around on his right. I was able to pull away and take the sprint by a few seconds with Terry coming in for second, Jim edging out Darryl for the sprint for 3rd and George hanging on for 5th after some incredibly long pulls into the headwind on the climb.

Zone 2
Brian Toone
Terry Duran
Jim Brock
Darryl Seelhorst
George

The exciting racing led to a bit of a shakeup in the overall points with Darryl moving into the top spot, Terry Duran 1 point behind in second, and then me and Jim Brock tied for third.

Posted by Brian Toone
January 4, 2009
Managua, Nicaragua

I had an incredible opportunity to race in Nicaragua on Sunday, January 4. It turns out that this also led to our first victory of the year! I am still humbled by the opportunity to borrow a bike and experience racing in another country. Here is an abbreviated report I sent out to our team mailing list:

For the race today, I borrowed a bike and shoes from Shannon OReilley, the president of the Nicaraguan Cycling Assocation. The race was a 1.25 km course with two 180 degree turns. The start/finish was at the top of a downhill which took you shortly into the first 180 which was a VERY large roundabout called “Rotunda La Virgin” complete with a statue of the Virgin Mary and for the Christmas season all kinds of camels, sheep, and wise men. The roundabout itself was probably 1/10th of a mile or more. When you exited the roundabout you came back up the start/finish hill but on the other side of the road. The hill wasn’t that steep but it was into a strong headwind (20mph?) so that going super hard across the top you were only going 16-18 mph. Then you went into this headwind all the way to second 180 degree turn which was a normal 180 (not a roundabout) so it was pretty sharp. Then you had a 20mph tailwind and we easily were topping 35mph through here on the first couple laps.

Two riders on different teams attacked on the first lap, and my teammate, Walter, joined them to form a small three man breakaway. They got a little bit of a gap, but the pace was just way too fast on the downwind part of the course. We caught them at the start of the second lap. My other teammate (the national road and mountain bike champ) attacked on the hill and got away solo but another rider bridged to him and then again because of the tailwind we caught them both at the start of the third lap. So for the first two laps, the pace had been super fast when we started the third lap and made it around the roundabout starting up the hill into the headwind. I attacked as hard as I could thinking that people would be tired and I at least wanted to put on a show as the token “gringo” in the race. I had a 20 second lead for the next 7 or 8 laps but then I could tell my gap was shrinking. It was awesome to hear everyone on the side yelling “allez”, “allez”, “allez”, and one boy yelling “allez gringo, allez gringo”. I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to stay away from the chase group behind me which included one of my teammates (Walter) who had bridged from the third group to the chase group so I eased up and then there were four of us off the front. We used our numbers perfectly with Walter attacking first and forcing the strongest sprinter in the race to chase. I hopped onto his wheel and when Walter was reeled back in, I launched a counter attack and only the Shell rider could follow. So the two of us got away and worked together with me pulling up the hill into the headwind and the Shell rider pulling on the tailwind section. We worked together for the last five laps and then I was able to outsprint him.

There was somebody taking pictures, and I am going to try to hook up with him on Saturday before we leave to buy a few for $1 each. Also this website has some pictures from the race including the podium picture: http://www.ciclismonica.com/Circuito2009/circuito.html

A surprise BBL with 3 attack zones led to a shakeup of the overall series. Sammy Flores vaulted into the lead by taking 2nd place in all three attack zones. Terry, Darryl, and Jim are all tied for second with Chris Allison close behind. Jim Brock wrote up an excellent report – read the scores below and please confirm via comments or email the places Jim marked with a question mark. Thanks!!!

From: Jim Brock
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 5:33 PM
To: Terry Duran
Subject: RE: BBL Jan-10

I attacked in zone one from the turn onto Winny road and set what I thought was a solid pace up and over the first climb. The strongmen responded and gathered at the front which resulted in more of a steady pace than a series of attacks, chases, and counter attacks. Morgan Ramey launched a well timed attack, the 1st of 3 on the day, got a gap and the peleton responded. Big Daddy , Jeff Cloar, drove the train to reel in Morgan . He was kept at a safe distance until Darrell O’Quinn led it out with me on his wheel and the others waiting to pounce (my lead out man David F flatted) . I gave it my all but it was a little past my optiminim distance and Wes, Sammy, and Chris got by me.

Zone 1

Wes
Sammy
Chris
Jim
D-Mac (please confirm)

The next attack zone would set the stage for the remainder of the ride. Morgan, The Machine, launched early and got it rolling. D-Mac and Jeff C worked to establish a nice gap but it would succombe to the pressure of an antsy peleton. Morgan had a nice gap and the group focused on the field sprint. After several attacks, Allison Dad put in a nice pull to string it out for his boys, Wes hit it hard as did a GSMR rider. I locked on to Sammy and he lit it up after the turn. No way I was getting by and Morgan had held it. Jeff had a good run on me at the line followed by an unknown rider.

Zone 2

Morgan
Sammy
Jim
Jeff C
??

Repeat–see above. The Machine attacks, and without Darryl’s presence to command a “Tria Train” chase, we all watched Morgan gain valuable time. Several riders put in some big efforts to lift the pace, Wes, Sammy, O’Quinn, D-Mac were noticed at the front. With Morgan coasting to another victory Wes threw down the gauntlet, the lead out was on with Ty’s tri buddy ramping up the effort. I had Sammy’s wheel again and was begging him to GO! He finally did, gapped the hell out of me with his accleration, I clawed back on, and took us past Wes to the line. “Welcome Back Pat” and D-Macwere 4th and 5th.

Zone 3

Morgan
Sammy
Jim
Pat (confirm placing)
D-Mac (confirm placing)

Great day in the saddle!

I am currently out of the country in Nicaragua so the only details I have are the results, posted below:

Zone 1)

1. Chris Allison
2. Sammy
3. Darryl
4. T.Duran
5. J. Brock

Zone 2)

1. Darryl
2. Chris Allison
3. J. Brock
4. T. Duran
5. David McNeil

Please chime in with comments if anyone would like to add to the ride report. Also, please update me with the women’s results. Thanks!