tnr 4/12, results

(Results updated at 12:00, 11/13.)

I wish I had a screen shot of the weather radar from yesterday afternoon. All morning I'm reading "100% chance of rain," but in the hours leading up to the TNR the radar showed a pretty massive northward heading swirling system to the east, and another pretty massive northward heading system to the west, but about 100 miles in between of just scattered bits of precipitation here and there. It was as is Moses split the Red Sea above south-central Pee-Aay just for the TNR, so I figured it would have been a sin to give it up.

Six others felt similarly and we had a nice ride. Though that's not to say it didn't rain. I think we made it through the first couple laps on relatively dry tarmac, then it rained a bit, but not hard, and it wasn't terribly uncomfortable. As Brian commented afterward, 50 degrees is about the limit...which is to say that if it's above 50 the rain can be dealt with, below 50 and the rain is just miserable.

(As an aside, I never, ever get excited about the prospect of riding in the rain, but when I'm actually doing it--riding in the rain--it never seems that bad and I generally feel pretty good about myself for choosing the hardman's path. There's a lesson there. Somewhere.)

Anyway, on to the action...

TNR newcomer Phillip came out to play and initiated hostilities by riding away from the group at the beginning of the second lap. However, three-fourths the way up the Strohmsburg and Jon was attacking. So over the top we had a group of five--Jon, Aaron, Brian, Brad, and I--but Phillip managed to bridge back up after a couple of miles.

The third time up the Strohmsburg Aaron unleashed a vicious acceleration in search of KOM points, with only Jon able to follow. I caught back up in the next few hundred meters, and that left three of us rolling in front with Brian and Phillip collaborating (for a while) to catch us from behind (they didn't).

On the fourth time up the Strohmsburg I put in a dig at the top to try to separate myself from Jon and Aaron. Despite the satisfaction of Jon telling me I put him on the limit, he was able to stay on, but, perhaps because of an earlier mishap with his cleat, Aaron was unable to make it so Jon and I rolled in for the sprint and we all know how that turned out.

4/12 results:
................. finish .. sprint/KOM .. points
................. points .... points* ... total
1 Jon Marshall .... 16 ........ 17 ........ 33
2 Dr. G ........... 11 ........ 17 ........ 28
3 Aaron Snyder ..... 7 ......... 9 ........ 16
4 TT Brian ......... 4 ......... 4 ......... 8
5 Phillip .......... 2 ..................... 2
5 Brad ............. 1 ..........1.......... 2
7 Chris T. ......... 1 ..................... 1

* That's two weeks in a row the sprint/KOM points recorded total much less than the total points available...by 7 last week, by 6 this week. Where are these points going?

overall (after two tuesdays):
................. points
1 Jon Marshall .... 64
2 Dr. G ........... 55
3 Aaron Snyder .... 24
4 Dickinson Tom ... 17
5 TT Brian ........ 12
6 Phillip .......... 2
6 Brad ............. 2
8 Chris Flegal ..... 1
8 Dickinson Mike ... 1
8 C. Woltemade ..... 1
8 Chris T. ......... 1

There's a rumor that Jon may take next week off...and I may follow suit (by next week, I'll have quite a bit of racing in my legs in not too many days), but I'll probably still come and just ride with the B group or something. If that all goes down, that would make the race for the overall still pretty wide open.

See you next week!