Tria Cycling presented by DonohooAuto

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.