The Hangover – March 20, 2006

by Aaron

Section head text.

@##=#<4,r>@##=#What the hell happened?

Write up your own version of the weekend’s racing, feel free to be inflammatory, try not to be libelous or anonymous.

Find out exactly how easy it is to be schmalz.

Add comments below.

H

23 Comments

kwk

What a weekend!! First my usual disclaimer, My preceptions get very fuzzy when I am on the rivet. so excuse me if I write something that is contrary to what you saw because it is not only possible but probable that I was hallucinating.

Grants Tomb,

It was cold and windy, Notables in attendance : Two Mengonies, Nine Sakonnet, a bunch of Blue Ribbon, Local pro Greg Wolf and Mike Norton, Robert Latanzi, and oh yeah CRCA current "bench warmer" sprinter Ricky Lowe. Axis is fielding Karl, John, Chris, Kevin, Zoltan.

To the action, Wolf picks up all of the 20 buck preems. Most of the field either was marking Norton, Wolf (when they could) or Euegene from Mengonie. It was a pretty standard race the wind was not too much of a factor and neither was the speed. The 6 to go preem set up a nice opportunity for John to take a flyer, so he did, a Sakonnet rider came along for the ride (literally) as John I don’t think cared if his passenger pulled or not- Look up the definition of ballast. Shortly after John went away Wolf tried unsuccessfully to solo across, He was left out to fry in no-mans land.

With two to go I was doing my best to get up front as was Zoli and Kevin, We had things pretty well shut down, Wolf was sitting about 50 meters ahead of the field and John and his bungee cord attached break partner were another 100 meters up the road. Euegene threw down a pretty good attack as we neared the start finish with one to go, I marked it. Then Zoli took a pull that felt like an ICBM ripping out a of a silo somewhere Kansas. I held his wheel, we passed Wolf, Wolf latched on for the ride. I looked back as we hit the back side and the three of us we were gone!!

All that was left to do was let Wolf carry us to the line, If we caught John or not it was up to Wolf since we had a rider up the road. As we hit the finishing straight Wolf did connect us with John. Sweet! 3 Axis, Wolf, and a blown Sakonnet with 300 meters to go. Zoli was the first to jump and he uncorked a good one for the victory John was third, I was fourth and very happy.

Anonymous Poster #57

"Then Zoli took a pull that felt like an ICBM ripping out a of a silo somewhere Kansas."

That is the best quote of the week. I love it. In 6 months’ time, I may have to use it myself.

It's Over?

Yep, 13:41 till I got pulled from the 3/4 race..And I wasn’t even the first to go!!

How many were pulled? (Please soothe my bruised ego!!)

Aaron

I didn’t get a great view of what caused the 3/4 crash. 2nd corner after the start, about 10 riders back. I was about half way through when guys started sliding out in front of me and couldn’t be avoided. Seemed like maybe the culprit was trying to gain positions through the corner and ran out of room or hit a pedal. Not really sure. It’s a bummer for sure–top 10 would have been different, most likely.

kwk

Raitan NJ.

Weather: Cold and very windy. Course: flat and fast 4k crit like loop. Notables in attandance: Former Bicycle Therapy riders, Kincaid, Zwizanski, Ellison, and me. We had a happy reunion until Pros Ellison, Zwia, and Kincaid left me for dead. Others of note Pro Mike Norton (who said he rode 2 hrs in the morning), and the ever popular John Clifton Moore. Axis has Me, John, Kevin and Zoli

To the action, John Clifton Moore gets dropped straight away (ouch). The wind takes it toll on the bunch from the start. A group gets away then Ziwa and Ellison start throwing down to try and bridge. It is really somthing to see, when a classy rider starts hitting a field like that, It is like fireworks, or maybe more like Normandy on D day. I was just thankful that John was already in the first group. Kevin had a flash of his usual race brilliance and marked Zwia and Ellison as they bridged, but he never really got on terms with them as they rolled the 14 into a head wind. Kevin faded back to me and Zoil. Now with most of the favorites up the road the second group started to split. I was able to make the selection with Bruce Weyman, Mike Norton, and some Polish speaking guys who are "unusually" strong.

At 20k to go 7 guys were up the road, John was attacking and looked good. I had 7 in my group and the field was behind us for good. There was much attacking and countering in both groups. John was dishing out his own version of (how you like me now) to some real heavy hitters. But there is only so much one man can do after all night on your feet saving lives at his day job. John Loehner MD had to settle for 4th I rolled in for 13th one place out of the money, the "dick spot" as my old teammate Puppy put it. Zwia won (what a suprise)

Karl

Anonymous

"Top 10 would have been different, most likely"

Wow. Isn’t it a bit early in the season for the "I would have won if only I didn’t blah, blah, blah" game.

Jon S

Thats not what Aaron said, give him a break he rode a great race – more likley he was talking about all the sprinters, Cisco, Euri etc who got held up or went down.

Eugene, re: G's T

Sakonnet controlled the race early, Axis controlled later. Throughout, Sakonnet had riders up the road and forced others to respond. Axis took over later in the same way, after everyone was a bit tired. But Sakonnet still had the legs to deal with it. In the end, Axis loaded the breakaway with 3 guys (it was frustrating to see guys chase me around all day, but allow half of a team to escape with no response. But I had used too much energy early anyway– I did myself in.).

Tony S

I think at least 10 people that were in the top 15% of the field going into the last lap were affected by the corner 2 crash.

kevin b.

spring series – cat.5 (w/masters and women)

It was warm and sunny with little to no wind for the start…so warm in fact that i forgot to pack the bishop. everything was nice and congenial at the start, unlike last week where f-bombs were dropping like napalm on the entire peleton. all the bitching was replaced with "pardon me" and "my bad". the cum-ba-ya love-fest soon ended though with some strong attacks after the first harlem hill crossing. from then on, the pack was stretched out with weak 3 and 4 man breaks squirting off the front, only to be swallowed quickly thereafter. the pace was avg. 23+

the group worked together surprisingly well until half way thru the 2nd lap (yeah, it’s a short race…sue them). a six or seven man break got off with some distance. they were strong and working together somewhat…and with a bunch of winded 5’s and master’s riders waiting for us to get out of the way before they really "started" their race, i thought that break was gonna stick…so i sacrificed my first born and went. looking like a snot spewing party-favor, i caught them after 2 minutes of leg-burning hell. thanks to joe for the props as he rode by after i blew it…no thanks to the other dozen guys that wouldn’t let me back into the paceline.

i thought i was cooked after that. no sooner had we reeled in that break, a metro-sanchez master’s dude and rashad guerra unleashed a vicious counterattack with about 2 miles to go. thankfully, someone else grew a pair and led chase, catching those hooligans with under a mile to go. will, rashad, jason, me and some other unknown legs lined up for the final. jason gallagher (gotham) timed his attack perfectly and took off the left side. rashad and i were neck and neck, knife-fighting for 2nd place almost all the way up cat’s paw until he popped. we’re all lucky he was in that late, failed attack or he could have won that spint.

thanks to the master’s guys and the women for being cool to us neophytes and getting outta the way for our finish.

who was that metro dude anyway?

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