FLCC> Ringwood Tuesday A's (from the back)

[Vanya Temnykh]

           Feeling stronger than two weeks ago, I decided to try my luck with the A's again. Seeing that Glenn wasn't there to punish the pack with his sprints off the front, the man to watch out for was IC's Matt Plumb, who got a top-10 finish in the Hollenbeck's 1-2-3 race! The pace averaged a brisk 30mph down to 79 and Ellis Hollow. Practicing his track-racing tactics, Steve Frattini lit a rocket up the EHS ascent, but the pack reeled him in before the crest. Going up Ringwood instead of Hurd meant more recovery time for everyone, so Ringwood was going to be brutal. Ben Kraft and I led the pack up the first, gentle climb doing no less than 17mph...faster than I remember going last year...but the fast train swallowed us and soon I found myself at the tail, trying to not blow up. The gap opened up as my speed dropped to 9mph, a bit slower than the rest. Seeing some stragglers at the crest, I decided it wasn't over quite yet. 
              On the flat, Steve Edgar had decided to DNF, and then Joe Bailey as well, as Ben K. made a demoralizing move on his commuter-race bike. Too bad, because we could have worked together on the flats! Oh well, I was left alone to hone my TT skills, and by Yellow Barn Road had bridged up to another A-rider by the name of Ben. We worked together quite well, and kept Ben K and another rider in sight, within 30 seconds. Then Snyder Hill kicked in. Ben pulled away before the turn onto Snyder, while I downshifted and settled into a good climbing pace. My goal was to reel in at least one Ben before the finish line.
              The pace felt good, and I wasn’t giving up any distance, but not gaining much either. On the steepest part, the granny gear came into play, and by the crest I was within 10 seconds of Ben. Taking the Landon curve at full speed I finally got his wheel, and saw another rider about 50m up. Maybe I was going to get another rabbit? Last curve, I punched it with all I had and saw that Ben did not hook on to my wheel. I passed the other rider, who was none other than Cornell’s Ben Cheetham, at the first yellow diamond. This is why the As finish at the second one! Ben Kraft had already finished, about half a minute ahead. So I caught two Bens out of three, not bad. 
              The B’s rolled in just as I caught my breath, meaning they weren’t wasting any time either! It looked like Don came in second, but he’ll have to write his own report.
   
  Awesome racing, see you guys at Brooktondale next week!
  Vanya
  

Mark Rishniw <mr89 at cornell.edu> wrote:
  With the threat of rain negated by the presence of His Excellency, El Prez, a large group rode up to the start of the Ringwood ride.  Finally, midway through May, we were going to do a full course.  I was not looking forward to it and was quickly trying to rack up excuses - I'd been digging trenches all weekend as well as doing hillwork; I was still 10lb above my minimum race weight (a serious fatboy start to the season!); I was tired and overworked.  None of them were any good - the others saw my shiny new Orbea and decided I had negated my disadvantages.

The B-group rolled out quite large, and gradually picked up pace along midline.  Through the corner, Donal F swung wide over the yellow line and then cut across the pack somewhat dangerously through the corner (Don, you can only cut a corner if you're in front, not from midway through the pack), but everybody was ready and no ill came of it.  Over the crest and down Midline towards 79, Mike P and Emmanuel decided to put the hammer down.  The group was strung out single file as we turned onto 79, everybody barely holding the wheel ahead.  Onto EHS, the 2 break-aways were reeled in.  I jumped on the lower section, forcing the pace. Of course, this cost me dearly in the second part of the climb, and I barely hung on to the cresting pack - we were down to 13 riders.  Mike P put in another attack on the downhill, this time taking Hugh with him.  Coming up to Ringwood, it was gruppo compatto.  Don F went to the front and started motoring - the pack sitting on his wheel.  Finally,
 the extra twinkies I'm carrying made me pay the price and I waved a sad bye-bye as they started up from the bridge.  Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!  Four more riders also fell off the back - the most painful of whom was Alex Tamm, who cramped for about 5 minutes by the side of the road.  The other 3 riders regrouped and proceeded to chase the lead bunch - I could see FannyPack George in there, but couldn't pick out the others.

Try as I might, I couldn't bridge the ever-widening gap and resolved myself to riding a TT to the finish line on Snyder Hill.  I finally got to the finish line as a small group of chasers were closing down on me.  I have no idea who won.  Although I'm nowhere near fit, this was a pretty fast-paced (and therefore relatively safe) race.  The B's are definitely racing better this year!


  Mark Rishniw

  Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

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