GPS stats: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/71694559
9 training weekends left before the L'Etape ride, so the threat of being undertrained brought even Jaffe out today...and he didn't even sign up for it. Eddie came out as well unannounced and joined Shannon, Vince, Verm and myself, so we had a pretty good representation of BRCM jerseys out there today. Well, except Jaffe didn't wear his.
The weather was a little cool in the morning, but the most we needed was just some arm-warmers, although I had a base layer too. It ended up being cool enough during the day that the arm warmers stayed on the whole time. There were some moderate winds out there, some helpful going up the SART, but the canyons and after were a little tough.
The group started out with a pretty moderate pace down CA, but once on the bike trail, the pace picked up some with Verm and Eddie leading the way. Of course, it picked up even more once we got on BB. Unfortunately, Jaffe fell off at some point, but we re-grouped after Bayside Dr. where Shannon and I brought him up to the others.
The pace on PCH was still pretty solid, but once on the river trail, the pace picked up significantly. Eddie, Verm, Vince, Shannon and I got into lunch ride (or TT) mode and pretty much stayed together all the way to the rest room at the Honda Center. Shannon took the first strong pull, and while I thought I could jump up to help, my attempt to pass only led him to turn it up even more where I decided against trying to pull beyond Shannon's 27 mph pace. Yeah, I'll wait.
The pace was a little too much for Jaffe again, but considering that we average 25.7 going up the trail according to Shannon's stats, it was no wonder. While Shannon held some really strong pulls, everyone else had some standout pulls as well at different sections. Vince wasn't feeling that well from the beginning, but he took some strong turns along with Eddie and Verm also.
Once we got to the restroom, the 23 miles we had done to get there felt like 50 based on the pace. Eddie had dropped off just a little but arrived shortly after. We waited around for a bit to recover from the pace, and Jaffe eventually caught up. After a little nourishment, we were off again.
On the way to Imperial Hwy, we throttled it down a bit and stayed together all the way. It was fun going through the zigzag sections on the trail before, so the pace picked up some there, but otherwise, it wasn't too bad.
On Imperial > Cannon, Steve led the way with Shannon and Eddie and Steve behind him. I had some extra from the honey nourishment at the last stop, so I picked up the pace some getting ahead after a while. However, I couldn't hold it and Vince eventually caught and passed me. He got about 20 feet ahead by the time he hit the crest, and just booked after that where we wouldn't see him until Jamboree/Santiago. The rest of us regrouped at the bottom.
On E. Santiago, Verm and I kept the pace up and let Shannon regroup from all the work he did on the bike trail. We held a pretty good pace, which ended up being a little too much for Eddie and Jaffe. The 3 of us rode together all the way to Jamboree where we saw Vince turn to start heading through the canyons. We all checked to see if we had enough water, and given that we did, we went ahead and followed. Shannon stayed behind to help tow Eddie and Jaffe back to the group. What a guy.
Vince, Verm and I waited at the top of dump hill. Once Eddie got there, he kept on going to get a head start through the canyon. Shannon stayed with Jaffe, but once we took off from the top, Shannon led the charge down the hill and it took a standing sprint to just get on his wheel with Steve. Vince must have done the same thing behind me as he was there too.
With the pace going down, we ended up dropping Jaffe again and Shannon decided to go back and help him out again. It turns out Jaffe didn't bring any type of nutrition with him (I think) and it took Shannon to give him a double espresso gel to finally get Jaffe the necessary recharge he needed to keep going.
We checked up a little bit to make sure Shannon was okay since we didn't know what he was doing for a bit. Vince even slowed down to check on him, and we just kept going to where we ended up catching Eddie. Vince also caught up, and while we originally planned to keep the pace moderate, it picked up again and we were reeling all sorts of people ahead of us in.
Eddie dropped off, and eventually, Verm did too, but Vince and I stayed together for the rest of the canyon. As we started the last set of ascends, Vince was leading with me in tow when a guy on a TT bike that had passed while we waited atop dump hill jumped on too. Vince kept the pace up on the ascend, and I took a turn on the little dip, but Vince eventually ended up passing to take the last pull up to the top. Then, TT guy decided he wanted to charge passed us both right before, and I jumped to get on his draft as did Vince on mine.
I guess TT guy didn't expect we would be able to answer at that point, so soon after we crested, Vince and I were hoping he would take a turn, get on the aeros, and pull us down the hill. However, he decided to turn left shortly after onto Modjeska (which was closed). Vince and I both agreed it was pretty chicken shat.
We waited for the others at Cooks after charging the hill, and Verm and Eddie both passed us and stopped just after on the side of the road. Soon after, Shannon and Jaffe passed and only saw Steve and Eddie so they kept going ahead. Vince and I had to do some work to catch up to Shannon and Jaffe on El Toro. We were also hoping to catch Eddie and Verm, but they had turned to go up Glenn Ranch, where I assume they took Bake back onto Irvine Boulevard.
Shannon and I were keeping the pace up down El Toro and on Trabuco. We ended up seeing Eddie and Verm and thought about giving chase, but opted to turn left on Alton instead to try and get Jaffe back by 10:30. Jaffe was doing better at this point, so I guess the double espresso had kicked in already.
We took Laguna Canyon > Quail Hill > Shady where we ended up parting ways with Jaffe at Sunnyhill. I thought it would be cool to charge up Shady, but midway up, I realized A) my right leg was not wanting to cooperate on the standing climb and B) no one else cared to (smart).
The rest of the ride was up through Anteater, Peltason and Health Science. Once on Bison, the 3 of us headed toward the gate where the guard came out and started gesturing for us to turn around. We rolled up to him where I started to ask him why. He then finally noticed that the 3 of us were wearing BRCM jerseys, and realized that we worked there so he let us through.
Overall, it was an awesome training day with a 20+ pace for the 69 miles. I think Shannon and I are ready for Solvang now. Thanks for everyone who came out today. Hopefully, we'll get more to come out in 2 weeks for the next pre-L'Etape trainer.
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