At that point CyLowe had dropped back from the lead group to join Kimbercop and I. We still had sight of them, and realized a little late that they had blown through a turn on the route. After some quick thinking and discussion CyLowe rode up to their group to lead them on a 1.5-2 mile detour while Kimbercop and I went back and took the correct turn.
Kind of sneaky, but they needed the extra length to take some energy out of those legs
.
They caught us within a few miles. dekalbSTEEL exclaimed, "you didn't think this break was going to stay away did you?". Sadly...no I didn't, but it bought us some time and distance. We stayed together through the next couple of miles to my first surprise of the morning.
I got an idea to play on the whole "flat" trait of the route and create a "King of the Mountains" competition. To make it more interested I also created a "Queen of the Mountains" competition as well. We had gotten to turn before the "mountain" on the first route. I informed the group that I needed to know the first and secon as well as the last and secon-to-last riders to go over the "mountain".
We all rolled out from the stop sign at the turn together. Shider and Aham were off like a shot. It became clear that one of them had it. Now it bacame more about not being the last one over. Kimbercop and CyLowe were in the back, and then it happened. CyLowe dropped his chain while shifting to his small ring. Man his mechanic sucks (that would be me folks). As a result the final standings for the 1st mountain are as follows:
KOM:
1st - 100pts - Shider
2nd - 50pts - aham
QOM:
1st (last) - 100pts - CyLowe97
2nd - 50pts - Kimbercop
From there we had a long "descent" into Marengo, and the first stop, where it was every rider for themselves.
...continued...