Well it's always interesting to see how these things turn out and tonight was no exception.

All was hunky dory so long as Brian was happy breaking with wind for the rest of us. When Brian decided to pull up and see who else was willing to break the wind, shortly after all heck broke loose.

Ken and Tim attack no surprise there, they can go, we hit the center of Sunapee and all the climbers leave the rest of us in the dust. In retrospect I probably should have tried to hang on longer here, but resistance just seemed futile so I hung back and tried to conserve enough to still have legs left in Springfield. Dan slipped off the front of me leaving Dewey and that was probably the biggest mistake I made because for the next several miles climbing into Springfield Dan was just slowly slipping away from me. I kept thinking to myself, Dan if you would only slow down for a minute I could catch up to you, but he did not hear my thoughts. If I had only stayed on Dan's wheel I probably could have hung with him to the finish. Oh well, what's another 22 miles solo.

Finally reaching a downhill coming into Springfield I felt a little coming back. Pushing it to the summit, I tucked in and stayed over 30 mph most of the way to route 10. Getting a little rest in on the downhill and I was ready for the final onslaught down 10.

Summiting Springfield I looked down and noticed I was averaging 19.5 mph so far and pretty much ruled out any delusions I might have had of catching Gurney's 21.87 mph. Now I was about half way down 10 and was starting to lose it a bit mentally when I looked down and noticed I was now averaging just over 21 mph. When did that happen I thought, then I thought, time to snap out of this funk and see how much more time I can take back. From Croydon to the finish I was able to pick up another .5 mph on my average. I cranked the next few miles at 26+ mph but by the time I started approaching the airport I was toast.

I'm rather surprised how fast everyone went tonight, but not too surprised. All in all I'm pretty happy with my time. Last year I don't think I averaged over 20 mph once for 20 miles. My last 3 hard rides have all been over 20 miles and 20 mph, two of which were over 21 mph average and I can't complain about that.

It was great to see such a good turn out for the ride, support people included.

Ryan

Well that was great fun even though I was solo from Dewey and even though I am significantly last. But 8 minutes faster than my previous Springfield loop.
 
"there is nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about on bikes (sic)" Grahame Greene from Wind In The Willows

Mike, most of us have been riding longer and do more miles than you. For someone who's just getting started in the sport, you are doing awesome. Keep up the hard work.

Hi all! Pictures are uploaded to my home computer--I will get them to Ryan on/before tomorrow morning to post here. I don't think I missed any of you! (Oh, the suspense!)

You all did a great job; most especially Mike, Sandy & Don--oh, and I can't not mention Loren who ALWAYS had a smile on her face! Amazing! Thanks for letting me be part of such a terrific group of people.

Julie.

[quote:9345aa9442]and I can't not mention Loren who ALWAYS had a smile on her face![/quote:9345aa9442]

Probably because she new she was beating up on some of us guys pretty good.

Julie, You know I'd rather see you on a bike, but you captured the evening with your great photography! Amazing!! What a memory!

Thanks guys for including us in your fun! I had a great time and thanks to Don for hauling my butt down Route 10. I'm not sure what my real time was because I forgot to set my stop watch when we started so I have to go with the time on my speedometer which I reset while PJ was explaining the rules. Oh well I had a blast anyway and my time really doesn't matter.

Ultimate Prouty in 2 weeks so right now I need lots of saddle time!!

Enjoyed the evening! :D
Sandy

What can I say, the race was fun. I started out with a couple plans hoping that atleast one of them would work. First plan, to breakaway with Tim and see how far we can make it. Second plan, if I can't hang with Tim, then drop back and work with PJ, Dan and Ryan. First plan was working for awhile, but fell apart. Second plan never completely came together, but close.

The race starts out nice and calm going through Newport and out towards Sunapee Harbor. As a group we are moving along quite nicely due to Brian pulling at the front, man he is strong. As we are pedaling along the flats before Sunapee Harbor, I see Tim slowly riding off the front, here we go. I jump off the front of the group and catch up to Tim and immediatly we are taking turns pulling at about 95% of my capacity. We hit Dewey Hill and realize we have a pretty good gap. About halfway up Dewey my breathing becomes irregular, my pedals strokes are choppy and I start to lose focus. I have hit the wall. Then I here words of encouragement from Tim "Steady your breathing, settle in, were almost there!!!" Almost there??? I think not. We still have half of Dewey to go and then rollers. But the words of encouragement keep coming. We make it over the top and we can see the chase group. We get through the rollers, my heart still pumping out of my chest and I can't seem to get anything under control. We hit the downhill into Georges Mills where I can actually contribute something to our effort. I pull Tim down, we extend our gap a little, but I still am redlining. We make the left turn to Springfield and I continue to suck Tims wheel and finally manage to get myself under control enough to pull Tim for a short time. Then we hit the final climb up to 114. The chase group starts to come really fast, I now know we will be caught. As we make the left onto 114, Brian, Greg and Nathan catch Tim and I. Thanks to Tim's pace at this point, I am able to stay with the group for a couple more minutes, but with the final rise to the top of Springfield, I am not able to match there minor acceleration and I know I have lost them. They quickly pull away and I am in no-mans-land. I have no idea how far behind the next person is, so I don't want to slow down too much and lose a bunch of time if they are far behind, but I don't want to push too hard and dangle off the front if they are only 30 seconds behind. I continue at a moderate-fast pace down 114 into Grantham, make the left onto Rt. 10 and continue for a few minutes. After being on the flats for a minute, I look back and see Dan. I sit up and wait for him to catch. Once together, we are able to take turns pulling for a minute, then near the end we take 30 second pulls. There is no sprint for the finish, we come accross the line at the same time and we are both happy to be out of the headwind.

So, ultimately, I had a fun breakaway with Tim even though he is obviously faster and had to wait up for me plenty. Bonus for me is he helped me push myself harder than I would have on my own. I also realized that I need to practice more on the hills, not for strength, but to train myself to stay calm, breath steady and get into a comfortable tempo.

If I had known you were so close behind Dan, I would have eased off as soon as Brian's group left me behind.

I love these races, not only because its fun racing with/against you guys/girls, but I am getting some much needed experience.

See you guys in 2 weeks on the MTB.

-- Ken
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

Julies Pictures are up. Great Job Julie!

http://www.team-pinnacle.org/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=2009TPStage3

Julie - thanks for the support, it makes a big difference to have friendly faces on a course (not to mention directions for those of us who are geographically challenged).

PJ and Dana, it was great riding with you. I particularly enjoyed our long bumpy descent which felt like the milennium falcon going into hyperdrive...

PJ, next tiime we hit 29 mph and I'm sitting on your wheel I plan on having a bungee cord to attach to your seat post! :)
next year we'll get them on the hills!

Loren

My plan was to get away with Ken if possible, to help us to gain some time on the GC.???I stayed in line most of the first few miles then approaching Dewy Hill I moved to the front took a pull or two, then I decided to just ramp it up a bit a see what happened. Soon after, I see Ken go by me a minute or two into that effort, and he says ?Let?s go? so off we went. I looked back and a small gap had formed. We kept it steady and fast up the climb till the top and Ken took us down the other side, then I took us over the next riser. As we, made the left turn on 114 we had a good gap, next was to get out of site and remain out of site. In a few places along the curvy stretch that happened till we got to hill on 114. As we approached the final pitch to the top, I looked back and the train was coming. I told Ken they were closing the gap if, we just got to get over this hill alone and they won?t catch us. Ken said, let me guess - - Brian, Greg and Nathan, I said yep. I wasn?t going to try to go alone at this point, b/c I knew I would be caught and with all that energy expended I may not be able to stay with the new arrivals. Once we were caught, I just settled into the new group hoping Ken could recover and tag on the back rewarding his early efforts. The pace slowed for a bit, but it appeared Ken was not going to be able to hang on. On down the road I made attempts to break up the group, knowing everyone had time on me in the GC. One attempt at this, I got up the road but it was short lived. So the next one, knowing that Nathan had 41 secs on me in the GC, he had finished a long pull, then I went, but it just wasn?t going to happen. By the time, we were turning left onto hwy10 heading into the home stretch. I think our group had determined that this was going to be a sprint between us and we all wanted to improve our GC leads. We rotated through a in a paceline each taking about 30secs and every one of us trying to outdo the next. This made it extremely hard to get back on after our turns on the front. We all managed and finished together, and knocking out that last section in a little under 18 minutes, I think? I sprinted early at the finish and couldn?t hold for the win everyone passed me before the sign
1 Greg ? 2 Brian ? 3 Nathan ? 4 Tim

Looking forward to the next one???Great time!!

I know all you kids have already ridden this... but if anyone is interested in a leisurely friday AM ride, I'm going to be making the loop so I'll have a time to post.
Maybe around 9am at the high school.

I may be able to make it, if you do 9:30.


PJ

i'll be there at 9:30.

I'll be there at 9:30 too

My morning schedule suddenly freed up, see you at 9:30.
 
[img:7c60f52a7e]http://www.team-pinnacle.org/albums/bc_personal/120x90.png[/img:7c60f52a7e]

1:20:33, something just doesn't seem right about this time. I guess it pays to miss the stage day.

Ryan

I've got witnesses (or conspirators...)

Don't feel bad Rockboy, both Ken and I knocked off a min from our posted time. It was a fun ride.

Where was that team work on Wednesday? Wish I could have been there.

Ryan

I would have helped you, you just had to wait for me.

P