Wednesday Worlds #2 Forest Down Beanblossom

About 20 riders, including 3 Women, met at the Sample Gates tonight at 6pm for the 2^nd edition of the Wednesday Worlds. Today’s course would take us through Hindustan to the MM State Forest then down Beanblossom to finish on Anderson after two 14 mile circuits. There was a steady, strong wind out of the West and South today that was picking up in intensity once the ride got underway. The ride was neutral through Hindustan and many of us knew that after that would be our Waterloo. We rode tempo to this point but once we crested onto the false flats of that hellish section the desperation of the moment washed over us like a bad dream. Rose, Shei, Hamilton, Atwell, Shanahan forced the issue and split the peleton into four groups just before the pitch into the Forest proper. Pilling, Saccone, Stuart, Palmer, Preske, Ibold, Paul Levy and Josh from Nebo formed the initial second group. Just behind was Urbanski, Arvin, Gleason, Cobb, Fredrickson and Em Palmer. From this point forward, you’ll have to rely on the posts of the leaders, as my world was getting dark, but I can tell you that a painful religion came quickly to us in the second group as we tried to keep the leaders in our sights. Once we sorted out our roles in the chase we began to chip away at the lead, but we would ultimately run out of real estate and desire as we came around the Forest climbs for the second lap. At the bottom of Beanblossom our group began to shed layers as Palmer, Stuart and Pilling kept the pressure on with Saccone, and Preske and Levy struggling to hang on. In the final kilometer Palmer took the long leadout role and launched Pilling with Stuart in tow. A quick acceleration from Pilling at the 200m mark was all he needed to win the field sprint with the young Stuart finishing with the same time. As for the leaders, well, I can only guess!