Cold, fog, and light rain greeted us this morning for the finale of the BBL winter training series. Mitchell from Mitchell’s Place was on hand to cheer us on as we left from Gravlee Fitness. We started the action early with a KOM to the fireworks driveway entrance.

KOM #1
Wes Douglas (Tria Market/Ivan Leonard)
David McNeal (Citigroup/BBC/Tristar)
Brian Toone (Tria Market/Ivan Leonard)
Sammy Flores (Tria Market/Ivan Leonard)
?

We cruised through Camp Winnataska Rd this week with no attack zone at the end. Then as soon as we made the turn onto 43, Terry blew the whistle and the pace skyrocketed. Still, everybody was up to the challenge and a good majority of the group was still together on the Vandiver climb. Darryl S launched a massive attack at the bottom and only Wes D could bridge up and maintain the pace. Here’s the order of the finish at the top:

KOM #2
Wes Douglas (Tria Market/Ivan Leonard)
Brian Toone (Tria Market/Ivan Leonard)
Pat Allison (TNT Fireworks/Bob’s Bikes)
Terry Duran (Citibank/BBC/Tristar)
Darrell OQuinn (BBC/Tristar)

The KOM #2 finish above was also the group that made it over the top to contest the Mimosa sprint which ended up like this:

Mimosa Attack Zone
Pat Allison (TNT Fireworks)
Brian Toone (Tria Market/Ivan Leonard)
Terry Duran (Citibank/Tristar/BBC)
Wes Douglas (Tria Market/Ivan Leonard)
Darrell OQuinn (BBC/Tristar)

After this attack zone, the race for 1st men’s overall was tight with me in the lead by 1 point ahead of Terry and Darryl both tied for second.

Going into the final attack zone – the Irondale City Limits / Cemetery Hill double attack zone, the pace was fast and Jim Brock led home a crazy fast sprint with this order:

Irondale City Limits
Jim Brock
Chris Allison
Joseph Greenway
Pat Allison
Wes Douglas

With Terry, Darryl, and I out of the points for the Irondale City limits sign, only one point seperated the top three places going into the final sprint. In the drag race up the hill, I came out on top followed by Terry, Pat, Darryl, and Darrell:

Cemetery Hill
Brian Toone
Terry Duran
Pat Allison
Darryl Seelhorst
Darrell O’Quinn

After the ride, we had lots of fun eating Taziki’s and raffling off door prizes while I worked to get all the points tallied. Here’s the final spreadsheet! Congrats to all!!!

Google docs points spreadsheet (updated 2/14/09 – 8:00pm): http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pBZmIyeXgZQ_gX1PuoFhvLA

Mmmm, mmmm – you’ve got to hand it to Tria Market for the most delicious post-ride food so far this season! It was another exciting week, beautiful spring weather, and a huge turnout for today’s ride. Here is the placing on the attack zones (please comment to fill in the missing spots or correct as necessary) –

Camp Winnie
1st – Darryl Seelhorst
2nd – Brian Toone
3rd – Chris Allison
4th – Terry Duran
5th – Jim Brock

Vandiver KOM
1st – Darryl Seelhorst
2nd – Pat Allison
3rd – Brian Toone
4th – David McNeal
5th – Morgan Ramey

Mimosa Loop Attack Zone
1st – Darryl Seelhorst
2nd – Terry Duran
3rd – Brian Toone
4th – Pat Allison
5th – Darrell O’Quinn

Irondale City Limits Attack Zone
1st – Mike Powell (with a perfectly timed counterattack)
2nd – Pat Allison
3rd – Terry Duran
4th – Darrell O’Quinn
5th – Jim Brock

Great riding by all – we look forward to an exciting conclusion to the series next week. Don’t forget that the ride will be leaving from Gravlee Fitness. Can Darryl hold onto his lead? Who will battle it out for second place? And who will round out the podium?