smacking down the smackers.

Smackdown's come and gone. Last night we had a good showing of riders - and we split into an A and a B group. That's the first time in a while that I remember having two groups and its good to see the smackdown getting bigger again. Moving it to Wednesday seems to have made a difference.

If you haven't been to the ride, its a great training ride on a 6 mile open road loop. Its basically as close to a race as you can get without showing anyone your USCF license. If you haven't been get down there next week and check it out.

Buffalo and I went in the A group. This was an interesting decision - we made it on the way to the ride with no idea who would be there, but we've gotten to the point where having cats beat us down is more fun than attacking the Bs into oblivion, so A group it was.

The group was solid - most of the usual suspects were there. Despite this new CBRC member Kevin Ballou attacked from the gun. Tom Despart chased to him, then I decided to go across too (why? I don't know.). Me and another strong new guy got free, then Buffalo bridged to us on Rupert Rd. We caught the break on the hill at about the same time the main group caught us.
Swing and a miss.

We went up the hill very quickly. Andy attacked on 102 and I found myself on the front of the group chasing. Bob Pavlec and Tom Butler both gave me a where the hell did you come from look when I pulled off. We chased to Andy and the group came back together.

At that point Buffalo looks at me and says, "If I'm here at the end look for my wheel in the sprint. That is if you're here at the end."

That summed it up pretty well. We both rode the streets off the roads to our best potential but were totally in a place we'd never been. It was 50/50 split between maybe I can contest the sprint, or maybe I'll get completely shelled. There was no way to know.

At some point NAV Todd attacked. He's going as good as ever. When he came back I countered his move, but pretty much got caught right away. Todd launched again and broke the leash. Going up Ruppert and onto 102 Andy and Tony Felliette both bridged to Todd. I chased hard with Despart, Pavlec, and Paul McD but it was too no avail. The move stuck. I sprinted out of the group I was in but no one else really sprinted so it was just like I put one other hard effort in for no real reason.

Form Sprint Workout tonight, then Turtle Pond this weekend. Matt and I will both be flying solo as the 4s and 5s are separate fields so hopefully I can get in a decent move and then sprint the small group. Matt may be able to just ride everyone off his wheel in the 5s. Rock.

Peace out homies.