Garmin stats: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/75269824
I woke up this morning and saw the wet roads where I wasn't quite sure how to feel about it. On one hand, I thought it sucked given that I finally decided to give the sisters a try only to have to do so another day. On the other hand, HELL YEAH! After all, I'm a sprinter, remember? After some text messages, e-mails, etc., we finally sorted out that we were ON for today.
The weather on the drive up still gave me reasons to think we may ultimately cancel. There was still some light rain here and there, but upon reach Mission Viejo, it was drier than a powdered baby's bottom. It remained cloudy throughout the day and just cool enough to not let us overheat going up the hills. Wind wasn't bad at all, so it was a good day weather-wise for this feat.
We were fashionably late taking off because 1) people waited out the weather a little, 2) Verm ran late, and 3) I thought I'd drop just a couple more ounces when IHOP opened. Sorry to Vince if he had to wait for us a little as a result since we met with him near the bottom of 133.
Mike's friends Craig and Steve (I'll refer to our Steve as Verm) came out with us, where both were introduced to our non-warmup way of starting a ride. Once we got on the bike trail, Steve and Shannon started it off with a less than casual pace. Shannon kept the pace up throughout Harvard and the rest of the bike trail with Steve and Mike in tow, and Noah and I hung back a little to stay in sight for Craig and Steve.
We all finally started to ride together on Laguna Canyon...at least for a little bit anyway. Shannon likes the climb on the 133, so he towed us up the hill at a good pace ultimately leaving Craig, Steve and Mike Z behind. I was not about to relieve him here since I knew we had a bunch of hills coming up, so a tired Shannon (if that's possible) isn't a bad thing if we ever want to see him again. On the downhill though, we started trading pulls with Steve taking one too where we were hauling ass. Steve's pull worked him a little to where he fell off some, but Noah stayed with us on the downhill the whole time. Woo hoo!
We all met up on 3rd street and decided to start the climbing from there. Holy ish! What idiot city planner thought let's go ahead and build a wall, put a line in the middle, and have people go up and down it? I had to do some serious sidewinder action on the hill only to have the guy in the car waiting at the top look at me funny. What a good way to get the adrenalin going.
Going up Park, Noah charged it like a veteran only to further demoralize us by saying that was his first time up it. Shannon wasn't far behind, and Vince, Steve and I followed. Steve and Vince looked like they mixed it up a little just ahead of me, but I fell off enough not to see how it ended. Everyone else made it up the hill safely after with no one falling. Cool.
On the downhill, people were moving pretty quick where I think Shannon mentioned hitting over 50 mph. Mike Z. also charges the downhill and probably woke a few of the residents with his coyote like howl proclaiming his love for gravity. Noah, as expected, was not too fast on the downhill, but just like Joey on Friends finding his identical hand twin, I think we found Noah's identical downhill twin in the form of Steve. On the way down some hills, Verm's bike was howling for some reason (I'll get to why later), but it may have just been the sound of Noah's or Steve's brakes overheating.
For Temple, Noah led the charge up this muther also with Shannon and Vince behind. I decided I was going to stay on Vince's wheel this time knowing that he'll probably pull back a little given he was doing these gals twice today. I was actually doing okay most of the way up with Steve behind me. As we were nearing the top and rounding the corner, I looked up and saw how it pitched up near the end and thought, screw it where I decided not to stay on Vince's wheel. I kept pedaling but dropped the pace, so Steve came around at that point and followed Vince and the others up. When I started going up where it pitched, it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Thus, I realized it was more of a mental defeat than a physical one.
On the way to Summit, guys were charging down again and Vince actually missed the turn on Temple Terrace having to climb back up a little. That pales, however, in comparison to Verm actually rear-ending a car (mini-van?) at some point on the way down. Does Verm ever not have anything crazy happen on his ride? Of course, at some points during the ride, we would hear what we thought was his brakes or hub howling. He later indicated he felt like it was based on his chain rubbing on his tires. Maybe if he'd stop running into things, his bike may actually work right? Just sayin'.
Summit was a good hill too, but I felt pretty good on this one and was able to stay with Shannon. On Del Mar, I even gave one of the sections a good little sprint up the hill. Shannon seemed to have checked up on Del Mar a little, so I got to finish ahead of him and Steve on this one. Noah and Vince finished ahead of me here though...as expected. Everyone made it up this hill safely as well.
We went down Nyes only to have to come back up again, but Noah got a flat just as we reached the bottom. See what holding the brakes all the way down can do? Props to Reynolds for not melting as hot as his wheel must have been. Vince had taken off to start the hill since he had a long day, and after my brown guy tire services were rejected, I decided to go ahead too with Craig and Steve. Craig led us up the hill for that initial steep section and on the right turn, but Steve and I worked our way around him after a while. Steve was on my wheel for a bit and near the top, we mied it up a little and ended up climbing up to the stop sign at the top side by side. Vince had turned around already by the time we neared the top and we wouldn't see him again until Pacific. The rest of the guys made it up shortly after. 4 hills done! Again...woo hoo!
We made our way down Nyes again and ended up leaving Steve at the light on PCH. We all hung back a little to wait and then rode PCH together after a while. We also went up Crown Valley together and ended up starting the Pacific Island climb together. I thought I'd keep the pace up and went ahead letting Shannon know that I like climbing on my BMC better (mostly because of a couple toe overlap occurences). He said I was doing great, so I charged on. Noah stayed with me so I kept the pace up where I was trying to stretch out the power for the length of the hill. I thought we were alone going up, but more than 3/4 of the way up, Steve passed us both and charged the rest of the hill. With neither of us expecting it, we were not prepared to contest it. Good job, Steve!
There was no stopping at the top, so we kept going down to the other side. We thought we were suppose to pass Pacific, so we met up with Vince down there. However, when we saw Shannon and Verm bust a U-turn there, Noah and I were off. This time, I decided to let hillmaster, Noah, lead while I stay on his rear wheel. We were able to reel in Verm midway up or so, and I stayed with Noah even after a few off the seat charges he made. Near the top, he took one more charge and I'd had enough, so he made it up to where Shannon was waiting for us first. Everyone else followed after and still intact.
Vince went off to do Highland ahead of us, and Steve went his own way after. After we were all together, off we went to Highland. Shannon and Craig got down Pacific first and made the light on the left turn to Highland. The rest of us waited at the light only to have it not turn on us where we made our way through once traffic cleared. I think Noah was starting to feel the hills at this point, so I went ahead and managed to charge the first uphill on the big ring feeling pretty good. I managed to not be too far behind them when they u-turned near the bottom of the other side to start the climb with others with us as well.
We started the final climb together and it seemed like all were content to spin together. Cool. I then heard Verm talking to Shannon about something behind me where I heard Verm say semantics. When I asked what he meant, Shannon said I think Verm wants to sprint to the stop sign. As it had flattened out just a little, I thought why not? Little did we realize that the stop sign was still quite some distance away. Nonetheless, we were off. At any point, I would have been happy to return to spinning if Verm had stopped, but thee was no stop in him. I was starting to feel a cramp at one point, but his continuous charging kept me motivated. We even passed Vince on the way as he cheered us on, which helped even more. In the end, I was able to keep him off by just a little over a bike length to retain the sprinter status. Given Verm's not really a sprinter, I won't classify him as one of my children from that. He does owe me a beer though.
With everyone not too far behind, there was not a lot of rest time and we were off and headed back. I was already spent but Craig wanted to show how fast his standard crank was going down so off I went with him. That almost did me in, and I couldn't help too much after as we were heading back. On the bike trail to Trabuco, all I could was hang on while Shannon did most of the work hauling us back. I did try and chase down one guy with a yellow Amgen jersey who passed us as we were waiting for Craig and Mike Z., but I couldn't do much as else.
Once we got on Trabuco, I started feeling more recovered, and I finally started to help relieve Shannon. I tried to pass at one point, but got caught at a light where once it turned green, Shannon was again leading the group. I figured then I'll try and wait until we get past most of the lights and start the rotation after with the others. I think I started a little early where we were still going uphill a little as I tried to pull for a bit. However, we then started working together at that point taking turns.
Once we got to the actual flat or slight downward grade, the pace got hotter and ultimately started to cook off some of the guys. Verm had started cramping, and although Shannon wanted to get him bak on time, there wasn't much we could do so we kept going. We kept the rotations and once it came back around to me, I was on a mission to close the gap on the rider in the Sho-Air kit ahead of us. We were hitting upwards of 27 and higher at that point, so we closed on him pretty good. Then, Craig came around with the others in tow and he and/or Shannon finally closed it where we passed him. However, he did jump on at that point.
We ended up keeping the pace up to totally cook our own legs before we arrived to the finish. Shannon took one super pull where he was really moving, and I held on to defend. Craig and the Sho-Air guy did get up front another time, but Shannon and I finished the ride up front.
Mike Z. and Craig finished with us and Verm was able to make his way back safely as well. Now as promised, I have to give props to Mike Z. for making it out today and getting these hills done and finishing strong to boot. We were all in awe that he finished all the sisters with us without incident. It's already amazing for anyone to complete a ride like this, but for someone his size, it's just downright astounding. And to keep up in the end...rock star!
For the post ride, Shannon, Mike, Craig and I were graciously hosted by Noah (and Sarah) with a mixture of exotic beers and the pizza we grabbed from BJ's We saw Eddie there and asked him to join, but he had somewhere to go. There's nothing like hanging out and having beers with the guys after. Todd missed this one, so there were no vows exchanged today. However, Noah's comedy show was entertaining as always as was learning more about Craig. :) Thanks for hosting.
Thanks to all who came out today as well. The 7 sisters gang lives!
P.S. As for Vince doing all the sisters twice today, I only have one thing to say: OVERACHIEVER! Just kidding. Props!
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