the tnr

In case we have readers that don't get my emails, you should know that the tnr is still going strong.

Start time has moved to 6pm. The riders bring the summertime heat.

Yesterday we had 11 riders, two of which were new faces (shout outs to Eric-the-Ship-alum-tri-guy and bluedog). The week before we were 10. So...there's regularly a decent group out here. Where are you?

...

I had to jet after a couple of laps, so I can't report first hand on the finish, but from my experience and firsthand accounts from two others, I've pieced together the following report:

First lap was chill (by order of the officials), until Joel pushed the pace towards the first sprint line, clearly hoping the rest of us would stay asleep. We woke up. He was quickly swarmed. The pace picked up. Several bodies shot out the back.

Since I only had two laps to play, I threw down what I had on the climb to the finish at the end of the first lap, and then again up the backside climb on lap number two. Granted, it was my last lap and everyone else's only second, but I was glad to see that I opened a sizable gap even on C-burg's Martin and sojourning Jon Marshall. However, they got it together and caught me by the backside sprint line, the points for which Martin handily gobbled up.

I left Martin and JM with a nice gap on three chasers (Rider Big E and the GC profs), but apparently within a lap they were caught, which set up a five-way sprint to the finish a lap later. JM pulled out the win. (Though there were reports of Martin pulling a cleat, which sent him off-balance into Eric's path, which sent him into the opposing lane of traffic with a truck bearing down. Yikes. Those cleat-pulling incidents are murder.)