A hearty crew of 25-30 riders braved the initially cold start to enjoy a beautiful day and some good attack zone action. It has been a long week of riding for me, and I’m a bit foggy right now about the attack zone finish so please double check what I have below and write into the comments with any corrections. Here’s how the two attack zones played out:

Camp Winnie – the roads were still a bit wet, so the attacks were limited, and we found ourselves altogether with about a mile to go. That’s when Warren St John (NY Velocity) launched his attack. He extended his lead, and it looked like he might hold it for the surprise solo win, but he came up just a bit short as we caught him at the base of the final hill. As we jockeyed for position to start the sprint, I launched out first with about 250 meters to go up the hill, but couldn’t hold it to the line. Will Hibberts (Bob’s Bikes/Alabama Masters) came flying by to take the attack zone with me coming in for second just ahead of a hard chasing Jason Kellen (Mellow Johnny’s) who got third. Behind him was Jim Brock (Bob’s Bikes/Alabama Masters) followed by Brandon Thorton (BBC).

Irondale City Limits sign – this was our first green jersey attack zone of the year. We started the AZ right after the traffic light at the shops at Grand River and then finished at the Irondale City Limits sign at the bottom of Cemetery Hill. Ed Whitehorn and I found ourselves at the front at the start of the attack zone on the long downhill. As he and I pulled over, several people attacked and pretty soon the two of us were at the back of the group. Fortunately, the group bunched up a bit going up the short hill after the Cahaba River bridge. I attacked to move up simultaneously as Jason Kellen (Mellow Johnny’s) launched off the front. This worked out perfectly for me as I was able to slot in right behind the Jim Brock / Will Hibberts lead-out train with momentum coming off the slingshot from the back to the front of the group. So when Jim started his sprint with 200 meters to go, I tucked in behind him and then came around to take 1st with Ed Merritt (BBC) coming in 2nd, Will Hibberts 3rd, Brandon Thorton 4th (BBC), and either Jason Kellen or Warren St John (NY Velocity) coming in 5th.

Sara Phelps was the sole, brave lady on the ride today, so she had a clean sweep of the two attack zones.

The points shake out was quite a battle between BBC and Bob’s Bikes/Alabama Masters with BBC taking the win by a single point! So that means all the BBC riders on today’s ride get an extra two bonus points towards their individual score.

For our second week of points, we had lots of great action. Pat Allison wrote up a great summary on his blog (http://leaditout.com), and I’ve quoted it at the bottom of this post.

First, here’s my quick summary. In the first attack zone, things started off with Lennie Moon attacking, Darryl Seelhorst following, and Joe ? (Bob’s Bikes) bridging to make an initial break of three. These guys worked together for a short stretch, but Joe was crushing it and went off on his own before getting reeled back in. On the flat run-in to the hill, Lennie attacked forcing others to chase him down at the base of the hill where it was grupo compacto again. Then on the hill, Darryl launched first with me grabbing his wheel. Then Sammy came by with me switching to his wheel. Then as Sammy started to fade, I launched out pretty much right at the turn by the church. Pat came around just before the line, and I held on for second with Chris Allison behind for third followed by Jim Brock in fourth and Stuart Lamp flying into the picture for fifth.

The second attack zone was also our first KOM zone of the year. I attacked after following a strong pace set by a rider whose name I don’t know. He was chasing Joe (Bob’s) who had attacked at the bottom of the hill and gotten a bit of separation. When I attacked, I wanted to establish a selection of maybe 3 or 4 riders so I came from behind the rider I was following and hit it really hard not anticipating having to maintain that pace all the way to the finish. But when I saw it was just me and my teammate Stuart together, I kept the pace high. Stuart pulled through across the windy I-459 bridge sacrificing his chances to give me a short rest. I was hoping we could both stay away, but when I saw a hard charging Pat and Will, I had to drill it again. I was just able to stay away with Will and Pat coming up fast. Darryl, Wes, and Stuart battled it out for the 4th and 5th spots with Darryl and Wes coming out on top.

Great ride guys and gals. All-in-all, this week’s ride went really well. Thanks everyone! There were some jerks on Hwy 25 – but fortunately none were riding bikes, instead they were all driving cars. Maybe we could have a bit of a group discussion this week to talk about how best to approach Hwy 25 to minimize car frustration. Here’s 3 ideas:

1 – In Dunnavant (after crossing the train tracks), pull over to the side of the road in that parking/grassy area. Let all cars that have queued up behind us on the climb from Vandiver go by while we split up into roughly 3 groups of 20-25 riders each. Then each group could leave Dunnavant in 1-2 minute intervals to establish passing zones for cars so that they don’t have to try and pass the entire group of 75 riders at once. This would also apply when we add the Mimosa loop except we’ll break up into groups before re-entering Hwy 25.

2 – In Dunnavant (after crossing the train tracks), pull over to the side of the road in that parking/grassy area. Let all cars that have queued up behind us on the climb from Vandiver go by. Then re-enter the road and proceed as one large group.

3 – Use an alternative route (e.g., reverse the current route to traverse 25 in the opposite direction which may make it easier for cars to pass on the steep climb up Vandiver)

Just some food for thought – add your comments to this post if you have additional suggestions or preferences about what we should do.

Here’s Pat Allison’s recap of the ride today. Excellent recap – check it out on his website http://leaditout.com or copied below:

Standard loop again today with attack zones set on Sterret and Cemetary hill. Team Tria split up teams today, which made for very fast and exciting attack zones. Darryl Sealhorst kicked up the pace immediatly and created a nice gap, lennie moon also tried for a solo attack as well as Wes douglas. The group chased hard and were able to bring the finish down to a sprint. The stronger riders seemed to use the hill to move into position. Sammy Flores played the lead out role for Chris and Pat Allison to perfection. Darryl Sealhorse started early and hard but was swallowed up by Smmy followed by Brian Toone. Pat Allison came around Brian for the win with Chris Allison, Jim Brock and Stuart Lamp For third forth and Fifth. The pace was good and controlled until the second attack zone beginning at the Bottom of Cemetary Hill. The action heated up quickly with an attack by Brian Toone. Only teamate Stuart Lamp was able to match the attack. Pat Allison went for a solo bridge and was only able to catch Stuart. Brian Toone Just held off Will Hibberts, who came flying out of the chase group passing Stuart and Pat. The pack was splattered ending with Brian for the win, Will Hibberts for second, Pat for third, Wes douglas nipping Stuart at the line for forth and fifth. “Team Sprint” edged out “team climb” by just one point for the extra two bonus points. Funny it seems that the guys who want to push the pace on the hills outside of the attack zones never seem to make it to the finish when it counts. Touche!

Also – I have only included the women’s results from the first attack zone. Please let me know how all the women finished on the second attack zone. Thanks!

Great turnout today for the points kick-off! Let me re-emphasize that the entire purpose of this series is to encourage, motivate, and push people beyond just another mediocre year of winter training. We want to encourage everyone from the fastest Cat 1 to the slowest Cat 5 or unlicensed rider to improve their fitness through friendly competition in the attack zones and a good steady tempo for the rest of the ride.

With regards to encouragement and motivation, we are trying out a slightly revised points system this year (finalized at the store stop today). Here’s how it will work. For each attack zone, points will be awarded for 1st – 5th places just like last year as follows:

5 base points + category bonus points – 1st
4 base points + category bonus points – 2nd
3 base points + category bonus points – 3rd
2 base points + category bonus points – 4th
1 base points + category bonus points – 5th

Category bonus points will be different this year with increasing weights for lower categories as follows:

0 points – Cat 1
1 points – Cat 2
3 points – Cat 3
5 points – Cat 4
7 points – Cat 5 / Women

With regards to women, the same bonus point structure will be in place for the women’s overall competition with the exception as noted above … if a woman places in the top 5 with the men, she will receive 7 bonus points regardless of her category but not in addition to her normal category based bonus points. This is a little tricky, so let me describe it with an example: if Katherine had won the women’s sprint AND placed 5th in the attack zone with the men, then she would receive her normal 5 points for winning the attack zone plus an additional 7 bonus points for placing with the men for a total of 12 points. She would not receive her normal 3 points as a Cat 3.

The team competition has been updated a bit this year in two ways: first, all individual riders on the winning team for the day get an additional two points added to their individual overall score. Second, Tria has been split up into four separate teams based on Cat 1 leaders on the team as follows:

Tria Green – Brian Toone
Tria Red – Pat Allison
Tria Blue – Terry Duran
Tria Yellow – Paul Tower / Darryl Seelhorst

This makes the team competition a more fair and exciting competition rather than Tria winning the team competition another year based on the sheer number of riders that we have participating. We are still working on our internal team structure beyond that, and it did cost one of the Tria teams some points today because Chris Allison’s points weren’t able to count towards any of the Tria teams since we all raced individually today. Still, the Tria team leaders’ points will count toward their respective team totals for the BBL training series.

This leads us to a quick recap of today’s solitary attack zone and the points awarded. We rode the old school Camp Winnie + Sterrett route with a very strong tailwind on the way out of town. This kept the pace high, but manageable with the tailwind. Once we made it to the Sterrett attack zone, it was fireworks from the moment Terry Duran blew the whistle. Several riders slipped away early on the first hill getting a good gap. As the strung out pack finally caught up to them before the crest of the hill, Darrell O’Quinn (Moontoast Tristar) put in a perfectly timed solo attack and pushed it hard extending his lead on the downhill as the group worked out who should chase. Finally, there was a flurry of attacks and another solo rider bridged across to Darrell, but the relentless pace in the pack caught the two riders at the base of the final hill. Jim Brock put in a monster attack halfway up the hill and got away solo. I attacked near the top of the steep part of the hill and bridged across to Jim before the final turn at the church. Chris Allison saw my move and was immediately on my wheel. I had broken my rear derailleur shifter earlier in the ride so I was stuck in one gear and knew that I couldn’t slow down or try any cat/mouse games. So when I made it up to Jim, I attacked hard again to go right by, but there was no shaking a very strong Chris and he came around to take the sprint easily. I came in second with Jim in third ahead of the group. At the front of the group, Pat Allison took the sprint ahead of Will Hibberts to round out the top 5.

As far as points goes, here’s the explanation on how the points worked out ordered by the placing in today’s attack zone:

Chris Allison – 6 points total – 5 base points (1st) + 1 category bonus point
Brian Toone – 4 points total – 4 base points (2nd) + 0 category bonus points
Jim Brock – 6 points total – 3 base points (3rd) + 1 category bonus points + 2 team bonus points (Alabama Masters won today’s team competition)
Pat Allison – 2 points total – 2 base points (4th) + 0 category bonus points
Will Hibberts – 4 points total – 1 base point (5th) + 1 category bonus point + 2 team bonus points

There was also heated competition for the women’s sprint with Amy Gravlee going hard early and then fading a bit, and a new contender, Hallie Blunk, taking an early lead in the women’s competition by winning the first attack zone of the year. Katherine Herring came in second with Terri Jones behind for third, followed by Beth Hollingsworth who made the drive up from Tuscaloosa along with a great group of Velocity Pro Cycle riders. Amy slid back to 5th rounding out the top 5 in the women’s competition. I have updated the points based on Kat’s comment (thanks!).

Here is a link to the current points standing: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0At4CJfC5J_FPdDJTODdxdFdvWDMxeVRaa1BHVndrRXc&hl=en

Pat Allison also posted a great recap on his website leaditout.com – check it out!