Bethel Spring Series #5

Masters 45+

Miguel, Bruce and Antonio were out. Antonio, ready to go for Battenkill next week was pushing it, looking for a result. He scored a 2nd place in a prime and took 15th despite getting boxed in for the sprint. Miguel was right there in 18th and Bruce was a little ways back. Bruce and Antonio will be at Battenkill ( Cat 4 race ) along with Jordan in the Cat 2 event.

Cat 1,2,3 Race 

The team was looking good with Tim, Hunter and Joe K out there. Hunter was looking to be active early with Tim thinking primarily of the sprint finish. Joe K was given the green light to get involved with anything he wanted to. Hunter struck first, getting the first prime of the day a few laps in. From there a bunch of attempts were made by riders to get off the front, most of the time all 3 of the CCRer's were in position to bridge up if it looked good. At least twice did Tim get into a brief move and so did Joe K. A big mid race $100 prime came up and Tim maintained his top 10 position all lap and was able to hit the hill early and hard. One monster sprint later, he was all alone and got the 100 bux. Half a lap later, as most were recovering from the prime lap, a small group rolled off the front and Hunter bridged up to it before the base of the hill, taking along 2 others. That put 8 or 9 guys up the road. There were 2 Champ Sys riders in the break against the other lone riders ( Bethel Cycle, Berlin Bike, Michelob, CRCA Foundation, etc. ). At first it was hectic in the break with guys looking to attack. It settled down for a few laps and the gap went up. The break survived from lap 21 all the way down to 2 to go. Multiple prime laps, and the Champ Sys guys attacking the group over and over made the whole ship go down. Hunter was able to snag one of the late primes making it 2 on the day for him.
    Meanwhile Tim and Joe were able to chill out in the peleton and were looking great for the sprint finish. Tim knew where to be for the final 2 laps and Joe managed to sneak into the fight just in time. Tim got boxed in at the base of the hill, but Joe was in perfect position on the right. A ridiculous crash by a Navone rider ( The series leader!!!! ) took out the very front of the sprint on the left-hand side, forcing all the riders very quickly to the right. Joe got taken out on no fault of his own when 2 guys pushed into him with no where for him to go. The whole incident was pretty unbelievable. A young kid even got taken out by a falling rider as he was watching the sprint on the right hand side of the road.
      Joe suffered a very dislocated collarbone and is going to have to wait and see how it starts healing.