Tria Cycling presented by DonohooAuto

Today’s ride was crazy hard (and awesome). Great turnout and much colder than expected weather. We had a couple issues I need to address:

1 – DON’T CROSS THE YELLOW LINE … EVER (capitalized for emphasis). We had a few riders crossing the yellow line today. Don’t do it. Just a warning today to EVERYONE, but future infractions will result in immediate punishment.

2 – Deanna fell hard near the Cahaba River bridge on 78 because there was some trash/debris in the road. PLEASE everyone call out a warning if you see something on the road (holes, trash, plastic water bottles, etc) so that this doesn’t happen again. She had to be taken away in an ambulance, so please pray/think/well-wish that she is OK and somebody email me so I can update the group with how she is doing.

The ride today must have been hard because sitting at my computer a few hours after the ride I can’t remember the placings very well at all. So please email me with corrections and fill in the blank so I can update this recap and the points. Thanks!!!

First attack zone – a large group of maybe 15 riders contested this sprint. Omar absolutely crushed the competition when he started the uphill sprint. Taking second was John Adams followed by Jennifer Schuble – beyond that is anybody’s guess as I couldn’t see. Somebody please update me!

Cat 5 / Women TNT Fireworks
1st – Omar Fraser
2nd – John Adams
3rd – Jennifer Schuble
4th – Tony Robbins
5th – Norm Hagan

Camp Winnie was much better this week without the rain. Faster, harder, and strategic all at the same time. So hard in fact I don’t remember much about it except the end. The pace was pretty high so there wasn’t very many long-lived attacks early in the zone. Terry Duran, Jimmy, and Adam were in a late move that got a few seconds on the field. But when the sprint started in earnest we swarmed them with Jim Brock leading it out followed by me followed closely by Mike Powell. I came around Jim as we approached the finish, and Pat Allison inched by me on the right and then Sammy came flying by us both to win it at the line.

Camp Winnie Attack Zone
1st – Sammy Flores
2nd – Pat Allison
3rd – Brian Toone
4th – Mike Powell
5th – Jacob Tubbs

The Sterrett attack zone sneaks up on you pretty quick after the Camp Winnie one so about half the group got caught off guard when a large group including a number of heavy hitters – Will Hibberts, Darryl Seelhorst, Jacob Tubbs, and a bunch of other people rolled up the road. Adam Goldwebber, Gavin, Jimmy, Omar, me and maybe one or two other riders were in the middle. After we made the turn on Hwy 55 there was still a good separation of the three groups, but Omar laid it down hard to finish closing the gap to the front group making it two groups out on the road. Right as we started the sprint at the end, Pat Allison and Sammy finished pulling the second group up to us. Terry got things started with the first attack. Then it bunched up again and Jim Brock and Darryl attacked. I was in perfect position behind Jim and was able to come around him to take the sprint. I believe Darryl was second, followed by Jim and Pat in nearly a dead heat with Terry Duran hanging on for 5th. Somebody please confirm that!

Sterrett Attack Zone
1st – Brian Toone
2nd – Darryl Seelhorst?
3rd -Jim Brock?
4th – Pat Allison?
5th – Joseph Greenway?

This was already a hard ride by this point, but it was only to get even better after the store stop. When we turned onto 25 and approached the base of the climb, a rider surged forward and got a good gap on the group going into the steep part of the climb. Does anybody know what that rider’s name was? We caught him towards the top of the steep bottom part of the climb and Terry put in a hard effort separating himself from the group. I looked around to see if anybody was going to chase. I didn’t see anybody making a move so I shifted into the big chainring waited a second or two and then attacked hard (23mph) so that I didn’t pull anybody up to Terry and yet could still separate myself from the group. It worked and the group split up behind with Gavin surging off the front and a number of people chasing. I was able to stay away to the top, with Gavin closing in near the top for second, and the group behind them coalescing for the KOM sprint for 3rd place. Pat Allison came out on top for that with Darryl and ? coming in for fourth and fifth.

Vandiver KOM
1st – Brian Toone
2nd – Gavin
3rd – Pat Allison
4th – Darryl Seelhorst
5th – Terry Duran

Mike Powell and Joseph Greenway got things started on the last attack zone – easily getting a 20 second gap on the field after their initial attack. We worked on the downhill slowly bringing it back until we crossed the Cahaba River bridge and a small surge saw a group of about 5 separate from the chase and put a few seconds on the group. As we passed the Irondale city limits sign we eased up the pace on the front, but Gavin wasn’t having any of that. He came to front and pushed it hard up the hill bringing back the remains of the front group quickly with only Terry still left in front. Terry was pushing it hard and Gavin ever so slowly clawed it back until we were within 25 meters of Terry with about 300 meters until the line. Jim Brock saw that we weren’t going to catch Terry so he started the sprint. Pat saw Jim start to sprint and started his own sprint. I saw Pat start his sprint and so I started mine and hopped on Pat’s wheel for a few seconds. With 150 meters to go, I pulled out to come around and we were both sprinting as hard as we could side-by-side with neither of us able to pull ahead. Fortunately (for me) I had about 5 pedal strokes more than Pat left in the tank and I was able to just barely pull ahead at the sign. Pat was inches behind for second. Darryl and Jim came in for 3rd and 4th with I believe Terry (???) coming around Gavin for 5th. But for his incredible efforts on the KOM and also for his monster pull all the way up Cemetery Hill, I believe Gavin gets the most aggressive rider of the day award.

Cemetery Hill Attack Zone
1st – Brian Toone
2nd – Pat Allison
3rd – Darryl Seelhorst
4th – Jim Brock
5th – Terry?