Jan 8 – Ride before the snow recap
8th January 2011 by brtoone
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.