The conditions were about as perfect as can be. The ambient temperature wasn't too cold even with the sun hidden behind the clouds, and the wind was pretty mild. This seemed to bring out the best in everyone today.
12 of us out there and everyone seemed pretty motivated (or scared) after finding out Shannon was coming out caffeinated. I fell into the latter category.
Even coming out of the gate, it looked like guys were already trying to breakaway, but fortunately we got stopped at Bison. On California, guys were pushing the pace already (cough, Gary, cough), but luckily no one broke away at the light on University.
Once on the bike trail, Jaffe got on it first (or so I thought), but Shannon did a little off-roading and off we went. He set the tone for the ride early, and it seemed everyone else was on board.
Super strong pulls at different sections of the route were seen by Shannon, PV, Vince, Adrian, Gary, Mike Z. (On Harvard...what?), Eddie, Noah, and Mitchell. That's how we managed a nearly 24 mph moving average for the whole ride!
Near the top of Portola, Noah busted out his signature sprint to the top but I was behind him and ready for the attack. I guess we surprised PV as we passed, but he missed the last ride when Noah did the same thing.
I guess with the group size, I thought we were going to re-group at the top, but Mr. Vince wasn't having any of that. If it wasn't for Noah letting me know they were all going, we would have gotten dropped for sure. For some of the guys who fell off, I felt bad to pass them going the opposite direction, but what can you do?
There was still some serious pulling all the way back. I got behind Adrian before the bridge, and on the way out, I thought he was trying to do his signature ditch and run, but we were able to neutralize that not too long after.
There was definitely no let up throughout, and as we approached University, Shannon was up front, then Adrian, Vince, me and Noah with others also still in tow. Vince swung out, and I thought was offering to lead out as he pointed toward his rear wheel (or he could have been saying, "catch this if you can, filipino mofo). Noah had started to come around too, so we all had to check up a bit as we prepared for the sprint.
Vince started to lead out and I believe Adrian swung out at that point too and got behind (although his recollection on AIM may be slightly different). I then decided to break for the sprint, but no one jumped on to contest. By the time I got to the bottom of CA, the average (not moving) was 23.9!
On CA, Adrian and Vince took off with others in tow, but Ironman Noah decided he wanted to climb the hill at a 20+ MPH average pace, so I just jumped on as did Vince. Strong effort all the way up. Vince and I swung out after and rolled to the light on Bison.
Adrian and Eddie had timed the light perfectly and decided to sprint to the gate. I was able to catch Eddie, but Adrian got to the gate first. Good job...running the stop sign. HA HA. Eddie taunted me after the gate to race to the building. I would have but then he'd probably ask me to race him to the shower too.
Overall, this was an incredibly fast paced ride, and we had older ladies cheering us on at one point on the way back. Either that or they were cussing us out for going so fast on a shared path. My 23.6 avg is definitely a PR for me, where Todd and Vince's 23.5 (with just the two of them) makes me feel like we need to go even faster the next time.
Good showing everyone!
Noah's power stats:
Here you go…
Peak 5sec was 898W, heading up Portola. Peak 2min was 377W, heading up California.
Overall ride was 56 minutes (I don’t stop the timer at any stops). Normalized Power was 286W.
Shannon's power stats and quote:
"My average power was up 35w from last time we crushed this route and speed up 1.8mph.
My most notable stat was 1min max power, which was up 70w to 585 this time versus last time (Dec 7)."
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