WW, take the lake

A small group rolled south of town for the ‘Take the Lake’ WW on a cooler than anticipated day. The pace was mostly steady all the way along Fairfax and Strain Ridge with pretty even pulls from all riders. The nervousness as we approached the dam was obvious and it was Aaron Pilling who led it up the steep ramp pulling a small group away over the top. However the pressure wasn’t kept on, allowing most riders to return to the group before the drop down ‘the Alps’. Truce was mostly called up the climb out of the valley but that was when things got a lot harder. Gary Palmer surged ahead causing those of us at the back to badly scramble and a couple guys were taken OTB. Things settled for a moment but once into the trees Erik Hamilton went to the front to set a steady ‘tempo’ and smashed the group to pieces. When the dust cleared Hamilton and Eric Young were off and away whilst the chase group of Palmer, Lewis, Quay, Beck, Naegeli, Parry, LG guy and Pilling struggled to get organized. Chapel Hill road makes it difficult to get a group rolling through with much cohesion so it was only as the group approached SR446 that the chase was truly on. The pace was kept high along the mostly downhill stretch of SR446 and on the causeway we could see the lead Erik/cs ahead knowing that we had ZERO chance of catching them on the hill. The causeway didn’t see an attack but rather Palmer and LG dude cruised away from the remainder of us. Chasing over the top Naegeli, Pilling and I took a good pulls before Lewis sprinted over the top to put Pilling and I OTB. After cursing up a storm Aaron and I got back up to Lewis and Quay but Palmer and Naegeli were gone. Kaleb took 3rd in his final WW as all groups rolled in within a couple minutes of each other. A great workout for those of us Cat3s AND we got to observe WWW in action! Next week- Low Gap- bring the heavy wheels!