Update – Andy was a bit worse off than the original assessment out on the road. Surgery on hip tomorrow and then 12 weeks non-weight bearing. Please keep in your thoughts and prayers, and send him an encouraging word via email or facebook.

What an amazing day today with temperatures approaching 70 degrees by the end of the ride! A couple quick notes for next week:

1 – We are going to bypass Camp Winnie completely next week, taking the Cook Springs cut-off road instead. There are just TOO MANY dogs on the Camp Winnie road. And they all appear to be fairly suicidal as at least two of them darted out into the road at full speed with one of them taking out Andy in a bad accident (see the recap below). Fortunately, I believe Andy is OK, but it could have been much worse!

2 – DO NOT CROSS THE YELLOW LINE!!! Several people were crossing the yellow line today during the attack zones. This isn’t a rule just for the end of the attack zone in the sprint. It applies to the ENTIRE attack zone. So if you are stuck behind slow people, that’s too bad. You’ve got to find a way around them on YOUR side of the road!!!

And now for the recap … the Camp Winnie attack zone started out harmless enough making it down the first hill and then up and over the second one. On the downhill on the other side, two little white dogs darted out from the side bolting towards us but fortunately pulled up short on the side of the road. This was still enough to cause some chaos as people hit the brakes and the ricochet carried to the back of the group. Nobody went down though and we continued on our way. We made it to the longer gradual hill when Miro (Alabama Masters) and Darryl (Tria Yellow) took off getting a good gap.

Flying down the next hill, John Adams got caught up in the loose gravel on the outside of the road and was the first victim of the ill-fated attack zone. Fortunately, he popped right back up minus a little bit of skin. The rest of us where ahead of John’s wreck and slowly pulling the two leaders back in. As we closed in and began ramping up the speed for the sprint, another suicidal dog bolted right into the group with us going close to 30mph. The first thing I saw was the dog on its back, legs in the air, and I thought to myself “this can’t be good”. Sure enough, as I looked up, I saw Andy Maddux in the air somersaulting ahead of the dog landing hard with his bike continuing to bounce down the road ahead of him. Darryl and Miro were still ahead so they didn’t even know anything happened and continued on in the attack zone, whereas the rest of us stopped immediately to check on Andy. Fortunately, after a few minutes, Andy realized he was OK, minus a lot of skin, a cracked helmet, a bent (or maybe broken) derailleur hanger and hopefully nothing else. (See update at the top of this post). Bob’s Bikes sent out somebody to come pick him up with Joe staying behind to wait with Andy. Thanks Bob’s! And thanks Joe! The rest of us continued on in a neutralized zone.

Camp Winnie –
Darryl Seelhorst 5pts + 1cbp
Miro Novak 4pts + 3cbp

Next up on the attack zone menu was the Vandiver KOM – Mimosa combo zone. We rode up the climb with a fairly steady pace with only one or two attacks. Heading into the switchback corner at the top, Justin Bynum (Tria Green) rolled off the front with nobody chasing. Shortly after the corner, though, Pat unleashed a monster attack. I tried to catch him, but couldn’t quite do it with the two of us passing Justin just before the line. Behind us, I believe it was Darryl Seelhorst and Will Hibberts taking fourth and fifth, but I’m not sure in what order.

Vandiver KOM –
Pat Allison – 5pts
Brian Toone – 4pts
Justin Bynum – 3pts + 3cbp
Darryl or Will – 2pts + 1cbp
Darryl or Will – 1pt + 1cbp

Pat tucked and led us down the hill at over 50mph. On the steep climb to the railroad tracks a group of about 4 or 5 came together. Then with a little bit more cat and mouse leading onto Mimosa the group had swollen to maybe 6 or 7. During the attack zone, there were a lot of attacks and counter-attacks, but eventually it was Justin and Miro rolling off the front. At some point we came within 10 meters of reeling them in, but as everybody looked at everybody else to see who would close the final gap, our pace slowed and the two leaders ramped it up again staying away to the end — which goes to show that if you are in a break, you should NEVER give up until the pack has actually caught you. Behind Justin and Miro, our group got larger and larger as more people chased back on. For the final sprint, there was maybe fifteen of us together trying to work out the downhill/uphill sprint with Chris Allison taking it for 3rd, followed by Pat in 4th, and then Will holding on for 5th even after dropping his chain towards the end. Ahead of us, Miro came in ahead of Justin.

Mimosa –
Miro Novak – 5pts + 3cbp
Justin Bynum – 4pts + 3cbp
Chris Allison – 3pts + 1cbp
Pat Allison – 2pts
Will Hibberts – 1pt + 1cbp

The second KOM of the day came when we made it back to Karl Daly. And just like last week, there were fireworks from the very beginning of the hill. Haha, just kidding, actually we rode more than 1/2 the hill at talking pace as everybody was tired and nobody wanted to try to stick a 2 mile climb from the bottom. So we were pretty much all together with less than 500 meters to go when Chris Allison attacked. I grabbed his wheel for a couple seconds and then launched out from behind him hitting my max heartrate for the year so far (196), burying everything into it. But alas, it wasn’t enough to gap Pat, so he came around me with about 50 meters to go. I held on for second with Will Hibberts coming in 3rd, followed by Chris in 4th, and then Jim Brock in 5th!

Karl Daly KOM
Pat Allison – 5pts
Brian Toone – 4pts
Will Hibberts – 3pts + 1cbp
Chris Allison – 2pts + 1cbp
Jim Brock – 1pt + 1cbp

No getting lost this week, I hope everyone enjoyed the new route up to John Rogers via Brownlee Hills Rd (gotta love a nice little 12% climb at the end of a ride). Seriously, though, that road is only a mile and a half long, and it is a gem of a road either way you go on it. Just watch out for the trains at the bottom. Once we made it to John Rogers, I decided to have a little fun and launched out from the very beginning straight into a headwind. People strung out behind and eventually caught me (maybe 30 seconds after I attacked?). The sprint was tricky, though, because it was into such a horrendous headwind. The sprinters dominated this sprint for the green jersey:

John Rogers bridge sprint:
Sammy Flores – 5pts + 1cbp
Ed Merritt – 4pts + 1cbp
Pat Allison – 3pts
Jim Brock – 2pts + 1cbp
?????? – ???pts + ???cbp

As always, fill in the blanks for anything I have missing. Or email me or add a comment for anything I’ve gotten wrong. Again, two things for next week:

1 – We are skipping Camp Winnie – it is too dangerous with so many dogs out there. I believe I counted a total of 6 dogs coming out onto the road to chase us with two of them bolting straight into the group including the one that took down Andy. So we will head on out to the Cook Springs cut-off road which adds a few miles, but we will skip Mimosa to bring the total mileage back down to about the same as this week. Will had a great route suggestion that would take us up Grants Mill Rd instead of Hwy 78 on the way back over to Karl Daly. Look for that next week or the week after!!! Plus, for the truly adventurous maybe we can start the KOM from the 35-40% gradient canoe landing by the Cahaba River. Ummm, maybe not.

2 – DO NOT CROSS THE YELLOW LINE. DO NOT CROSS THE YELLOW LINE. DO NOT CROSS THE YELLOW LINE. Do not cross the yellow line at the beginning, ending, or anywhere in the middle of the attack zone. Do not cross it period!

Finally, the team competition really heated up this week with Alabama Masters vaulting to the lead due to Miro’s domination of the points today. They now have a 1 point lead over my team followed by Pat’s team in third.

OK, really, this is the last thing. We had four strong ladies turn out for the ride today – Hallie, Kat, and Amy. I was so busy with the craziness of the ride, I didn’t see how y’all placed in the Mimosa attack zone. Please email me or update me in the comments. Thanks!

UPDATE from Kat on the women’s results. Mimosa was pretty much a wash because only Hallie (awesome, congrats!) made it over the top with the front group of guys. So the only points for the day are going to be based on the positioning during the Camp Winnie attack zone when the bad accident with Andy vs suicidal dog happened. And this is how those points shook out:

Hallie - 5pts + 3cbp
Kat - 4pts + 3cbp
Terry - 3pts + 3cbp
Amy - 2pts + 3cbp

Hey wow, great ride today even with the bitterly cold temps and wind. Here’s how everything played out:

1st attack zone – Sterrett. Early in the attack zone, Morgan launched out with a classic attack. Having demonstrated success the past few weeks with the long attacks, nobody was going to let Morgan get too far ahead. Pat Allison started the chase first, and then pretty soon we had a strung out rotating pace line trying to drill Morgan back. Morgan was pushing it, though, and it wasn’t until the bottom of the long descent that we finally caught back up to him. Pat hit out next with a surprise attack. Only one person, Jesse from Louisiana, responded to the move. Everyone else saw that it was too far out. Pat realized this, too, and sat back up before the start of the kicker hill. We made it about 2/3rds of the way up the hill when there was small split in the field. Jason Kellen drilled it closing the split, right as Chris Allison attacked with about 350-400 meters to the line. I saw him go and launched out from behind Jason, closed the gap to Chris and the two of us had a small lead going around the corner. It was too far out though, and we got swallowed with Pat recovering from his earlier attack storming past us to take 1st, Will Hibberts (Alabama Masters) coming by me for 2nd, then me for 3rd, followed very closely by Ed Merritt (BBC) for fourth with Andy Maddux (Alabama Masters) rounding out the top 5.

Pat Allison (Tria Red) – 5 pts
Will Hibberts (Alabama Masters) – 4 pts + 1 cbp
Brian Toone (Tria Green) – 3 pts
Ed Merritt (BBC) – 2 pts + 1 cbp
Andy Maddux (Alabama Masters) – 1 pts + 3 cbp

2nd attack zone – Mimosa. No breakaways this week although I tried to drill it a couple of times. Morgan led out the sprint with everybody strung out behind him. The finish order was probably the reverse of the order of the riders behind him. So it ended up being Chris Allison taking 1st, Pat just behind him for 2nd, ??? for 3rd, Will Hibberts in 4th, and Jason Kellen taking the last points spot in 5th.

Chris Allison (Tria) 5 pts + 1 cbp
Pat Allison (Tria Red) 4 pts
Joseph Dabbs (?) 3 pts + 3 cbp
Will Hibberts (Alabama Masters) 2 pts + 1 cbp
Jason Kellen (Mellow Johnnys) 1 pt + 7 cbp

KOM – Karl Daly. Well, the climb is 2.2 miles long but at the end of the ride with tired legs, nobody was willing to hit out early into the headwind. Instead, we cruised up the first part of the climb at an easy talking pace. Then as we crossed under the interstate, BBC moved a couple riders to the front and picked up the pace. We rode steady across the false flat and small rollers before the next steep section. Then as we were gearing up to attack on the steep section, a couple riders crossed wheels and although nobody went down it disrupted everybody’s rhythm. So the pace stayed steady to the top of the steep section, when Jesse shifted into the big chainring and absolutely launched from the front. I was right on his wheel so I scrambled and dug deep to stay with him. By the time he motioned me to go around, we had a great gap on the rest of the group. I was inspired by the gap and hit the pace hard coming around and holding it to the top. Jesse held on for second with Justin Bynum climbing his way into third. Behind Justin, Will Hibberts snagged fourth, and I have no idea who came in 5th – somebody please email me or add to the comments below. Thanks!

Brian Toone (Tria Green) – 5 pts
Jesse (?) – 4 pts + 3 cbp?
Justin Bynum (Tria) – 3 pts + 3 cbp
Will Hibberts (Alabama Masters) – 2 pts + 1 cbp
Morgan Ramey – 1 pts + 5 cbp

Green Jersey – John Rogers. Ummmmmm, so the ride leader (me) hadn’t plugged the route into his Garmin correctly and was trying to “wing it” from Alton over to John Rogers cutting over via Brownlee Hills Rd. Well, after one dead end, another missed turn, and a HUGE rottweiler (fortunately it was behind a fence), we found ourselves back out on Hwy 78 and decided to call it a day rather than backtrack to find our way over to John Rogers. My apologies!!!

Here’s a zoomed in view of our wandering around looking for the correct road – the yellow shows our actual track. The red arrows showed what we were supposed to do!

I’m still missing a few places, but it looks like the Will Hibberts and Andy Maddux powered Alabama Masters to a team victory and the extra 2 bonus points for the day.

Great turnout today despite the chilly temps. I don’t think it got quite as warm as forecasted with the lingering clouds hanging around all day. Thanks everyone for being alert for all the ice on the way out of town. Once we made it to Sterrett, Todd Higey got things started attacking solo on the first uphill getting a good gap. Morgan Ramey attacked to bridge up to him. Shortly after that, Jim Brock (Bob’s Bikes/Alabama Masters) attacked to bridge and took Justin Bynum (Tria Green) and Mike Lackey (Tria Red) with them. As they made the junction, Todd fell off the pace after his early efforts to escape. This left 4 sprinting for the first positions with Morgan edging out Mike followed by Jim and then Justin. Ed Merritt unleashed a monster sprint to win the field sprint for 5th.

The new Mimosa zone (starting from the railroad tracks) was next up on the menu. Will Hibberts (Bob’s Bikes / Alabama Masters) launched out at the word go and quickly got a good gap. Pat Allison (Tria Red) escaped a minute or so later and bridged up to Will. I (Tria Green) was slower working my way to the front, but once I made it there, I attacked to bridge up to the two of them who were slipping away. I chased hard and caught up to them right before the start of the sprint. Will led it out and then Pat and I came around with Pat taking it ahead of me. Chris Allison won the field sprint behind just ahead of Andy Maddux (Bob’s Bikes / Alabama Masters).

For the last zone, Cemetery Hill, Morgan Ramey attacked first and got away solo extending his lead across the Cahaba River bridge and up the hill. I helped keep the pace rolling and then attacked at the bottom of Cemetery Hill. Only Justin and Pat were able to follow. As we closed in on Morgan very close to the finish, my legs were done and I told Justin to attack. He attacked and got a good gap passing Morgan. Pat attacked soon thereafter and was just able to catch Justin right before the line. Behind them I was able to come around Morgan for third just before the line. Morgan came in for fourth with Will taking the sprint for 5th. Morgan definitely gets the Most Aggressive rider of the day award!

As far as the points go, Tria Green was able to squeak past Tria Red by 1 point, followed by Bob’s Bikes in third. Another exciting day of training/racing – going to be an exciting season!

Unusually for BBL, we were greeted with beautiful weather ahead of the storm coming in tomorrow. There was definitely a “storm” of riders laying it all out there today for the three attack zones and KOM. Here is how that all turned out I think – please correct any mistakes in the comments or via email)…

Attack zone #1 – Camp Winnie
Justin Bynum, new recruit for Tria Cycling for the 2011 season, hit out first on Camp Winnie and established a good lead. There was one or two short chase attempts before Lennie Moon launched an attack to bridge up to Justin. A couple other guys made it across a little later, but the rest of the group was closing in fast. Lennie wasn’t waiting, though, and he left the others behind staying out in front as we caught the rest of the lead group. The finish didn’t come quite soon enough for Lennie as we caught him at the start of the sprint up the last hill. Jim Brock led things out, and then I came around him with maybe 200 meters to go. Pat and Sammy made their way through the group and around me with Sammy edging out Pat for first. I came in third followed by Morgan Ramey in 4th and Jason Kellen in 5th.

Attack Zone #2 – Vandiver (KOM) plus Mimosa
Joseph Greenway got things started right attacking as soon as we made it past the Vandiver store. Joseph stayed out in front and pushed it hard extending his lead to the base of the hill. He bogged down a bit though on the steep opening slopes, where shortly after that section a small group containing me, Pat, and Darryl came flying by. I rolled it hard all the way to the top and then attacked coming out of the hairpin turn. Pat came around me just before the top with Darryl falling slightly off the pace. With Pat and me regrouped across the top, we flew down the other side pushing it hard to duke out the Mimosa sprint ahead of everyone else. Darryl was caught in no-man’s land chasing for nearly the entire sprint before being joined by a small group containing Terry Duran and Morgan Ramey. Darryl took the sprint for 3rd followed by Terry in 4th and Morgan in 5th

Attack Zone #3 – Irondale City Limits (Green jersey)
Morgan Ramey lit up on the downhill towards the Cahaba River bridge. Darryl Seelhorst was the only one to grab his wheel, and the two of them were gone never to be seen again before the finish. Terry Duran and Adam Goldberg both tried to bridge across to them but fell short. I ended up attacking from the Cahaba River bridge trying to close the gap, but I couldn’t make it. Up ahead Darryl took the sprint for 1st with Morgan just behind in 2nd. Sammy Flores flew out of our group to take the “field sprint” for 3rd followed by Ed Merritt (BBC) and Pat Allison.

As far as the team competition went, Tria Green took the honors today with 17 points followed by Tria Red with 12 points and Tria Yellow with 10 points.

As always, please double check everything and add a note to the comments or email me if you see any mistakes – and I will fix it right away! Thanks!

For the women’s competition Hallie Blunk and Katherine Herring went 1-2 in every zone.