It was a hot night, and not just because Ryan Allen showed up.
Temps were over 90 as the riders made the trip up Bunker Hill to the start line Thursday night, with a smaller turnout after a demanding four-week Grand Tour and the looming shadow of Saturday’s Cherry-Roubaix keeping many a rider on the couch. Not so for the SOL WorldTour riders, and it was with a healthy amount of pride on the line that Einstein Racing-Short’s Brewing brought some of its Roubaix roster to try to defend their TTT title of 2015.
There wasn’t a full team to defend against. Hagerty Cycling, McLain Race Team, M22 and even KEEN weren’t able to fill full three-man squads, and so, in the absence of Milli Vinilli, the riders on hand were divided into teams. Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, and Boyz II Men were hastily assembled, and away they went.
It was a familiar look to last week, with ERSB’s Cody Sovis on the front early, with Ryan Kennedy, Luke Tjosvold and Jason Whittaker lurking. Scott Quiring was always comfortable at the head of affairs, and it was a group of nearly 15 that spilled off Madeleine’s Trail and onto the base of the Power Section together. Sovis, Kennedy, 98 Degrees’ Jason Johnson, and his impromptu teammate Quiring all kept the pace high until Tjosvold upped the seriousness before the Iceman Wall Bypass.
It split the group, finally shedding an on-form Mike Walters and a Jason Whittaker looking to keep his legs fresh for Saturday. As the lead group hit the descent before Anita’s, it was clear Quiring, John O’Hearn and Jason Johnson’s 98 Degrees team could seriously dethrone ERSB, but disaster struck. Johnson crashed, and almost immediately after Sovis and Kennedy sat up, hoping to save even five minutes of effort ahead of the Roubaix, leaving O’Hearn to duke it out with Luke (dare we say, Luke it out?) to the line, catching Quiring and the trio hitting the line mostly in line, with O’Hearn taking his first SOL win.
It’s a good haul of WorldTour points for O’Hearn, picking up a few towards his deficit.
You can see the full TTT results, and all the results for the year, here.
You can see the full up-to-the-second-kind-of WorldTour standings here.
And now, Peter Worden with the miniSOL report…
The youths formed two teams for team time trial night, Team TurboPop and Team Rocket Pop. Each team had four members, the team time was based on the third rider over the finish line, so the kids had to learn quickly how to help one another so they’d have a minimum of three at the finish. The new format initially confused the youngsters and it contributed to a slower than usual miniSOL pace, but eventually Hunter Frank was able to bring Rocket Pop under control with the efficiency of a drill sergeant. He and Natalie and Gabe Howard worked together and came over the line first. Afterward, however, it was discovered that Natalie (who was enlisted on a rush basis to round out the team numbers) is actually 25 which in the miniSOL world is the equivalent of doping. Accordingly, the results were nullified and everyone was declared the winner, and everyone adjourned to the parking lot for tasty push up pops presented by sweeper Michele Pfaff Howard.
