Back at the cars we gained a few and lost a few. Drag was there to meet us, as well as Velodev. Joe and S_Dog decided to cut it short due. They both wanted to keep going, but in all fairness that last leg had done a job on Joe. Next time. Nothingman was out for the next leg as well.
The stop got expensive as first aham knocks over his Giant TCR (crash! - "WTF"), then Drag pulled a clipless fall over right in the middle of everything. His timing was perfect. I felt sorry for him because we have all done it, but this was his first organized ride and he was in front of a group of guys that he felt had a lot of experience.
I think most of us wanted to laugh because he wasn't hurt, we had all been there, and it
was funny. Instead no one moved. Almost like we weren't sure how to salvage his pride. After we ascertained he was OK there were a few, "Well...at least you got that out of the way"s.
The whole group between loop 2 and 3. Keep in mind that some of us had over 70 miles of hard riding in at this point...
L to R:Shider, CyLoew97, Joe, S_Dog, Me(Psimet2001), JPW, Voldemort, Velodev, Drag, aham23, and Nothingman.
Loop 3 looked promising. While I didn't pre-ride the route, I remembered most of the road being flat (wrong), and most of the riders had 70 miles in already so we wouldn't have much of a problem keeping together. What I had forgot was that the wind was out of the South and this leg was almost all South for the first half.
There was climbing and it quickly blew us up again. It was at the top of "Tower road" (called tower road because it is the highest point around for a couple of counties and there is a huge communications tower perched on top of it) that I had placed the last KOM points location.
I didn't see who was in front, but I was definitely last.
KOM 3:
1st - 100pts - Shider
2nd - 50pts - aham23
QOM 3:
1st (last) - 100pts - Psimet2001
2nd - 50pts - CyLowe97
Totals:
KOM:
250 - shider
200 - aham23
QOM:
150 - CyLowe97
100 - Psimet2001
100 - Joe
50 - Kimbercop
50 - S_Dog
After the top the groups got back together, except for aham and Velodev (shider may have been with them as well), and we got a good paceline going. All of a sudden I see JPW (or Shider can't rememebr for sure) pull off and notice Drag is pulling. I had a feeling this was his first time pulling, and I knew his heart was probably pounding (more from nerves) and he was soaking up the moment. It was a strong pull. Right on the money.
.....continued....