GPS stats: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/78859159
Even on a day with a few guys not able to make it out, we still had 9 people out there. I'm starting to think rare are the days when only 2-3 are able to get out on a Tues/Thurs ride. This is not a bad thing. It was nice to finally get to ride with S-Gary again as well.
It was a weird start for the ride...people seemed like they were soft pedaling from the onset and PV and I wondered what was going on. He and I ended up leading everyone out through Anteater. On Culver, Adrian and S-Gary got up front for some fast downhill action to Campus.
We were all together starting on Turtle Rock, but Vince and I ended up breaking away for a bit keeping a 19-20 plus average going up. I don't know if that was a good idea on my part, but it made for some great training.
The others started working together near the top, and Adrian was able to reel us in shortly after we got on the bike trail up Shady. Near the top, I started to gas, and Vince and Adrian got away where I wasn't able to see them again until after the bridge.
PV had made a lot of ground up and had caught and passed me in the middle of Ridgeline. I had to wait to get across the street from the sidewalk and hoped to pace him up, but got held up enough to where I could never close the gap. This remained the case all the way up Shady heading toward Bonita Canyon.
PV did manage to catch Adrian and the two worked together downhill gapping me pretty good. They ended up running into Vince at Bonita Canyon and got a jump where I also made it across but still quite some distance behind them.
On Summit, Vince had gotten a gap on PV and PV on Adrian. I was starting to reel Adrian in near the top, but not in time. Once he made a u-turn, he was gone.
On the way down, I got to see S-Gary, Marc, and the others, but it was a little bit of a blur. I was just interested to see if I can catch up to the guys in front at a light. What was odd was at the bottom of Turtle Ridge, Vince was sitting at the light while PV and Adrian were nowhere to be seen (probably TLB'd?). Vince got the green before I could get to him, but luckily, I was able to make the same light.
Vince still had a good gap on me, and I tried to make it up on Bonita Canyon. For a while, I started to close, but after the 73, either I was winded or he recovered...probably both...but he increased the gap even more.
Vince ended up catching PV and Adrian at the light, and I was sprinting to try and catch them but the light turned green and they were off again with Vince leading them out. WTF?!? Didn't he just get there? Nice.
I was able to make the same light, but these guys were just not willing to wait for me. I thought I'd catch them at the light at the top, but it turned green before I could get to them. As we neared the bottom to turn right on Jamboree, I thought maybe I could close on them after the turn. However, a bus was sitting on the curb right after the turn and while we all probably checked up for it, they turned it on after they passed and just broke away again. Bastards! HA HA
I FINALLY was able to run into them on Bison at the light on McArthur. In front of us, we saw S-Gary and Marc round the turn. Once the light turned green, the chase was on and led by Adrian. I wasn't about to let him get away here, so I managed to get in his draft and we caught Gary and Marc as we went over the 73. I kept pace with Adrian after to see if he was wanting to sprint to the gate, but he gave me the wave to go, so I did.
20.3 mph average (20.5 moving) for this route is over 1 mph faster than last time in February. I think Vince, Adrian and PV got better times given their pace elsewhere. These guys were on it today for sure.
Thanks for the great workout!
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