Sunday "Big Rides" Trainer Part 2

Garmin stats:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/77078252

7 of us out there today:  Noah, Shannon, Vince, Eddie, Mitchell, Jaffe and me.  4 came out in white BRCM jerseys and forgot to send out the memo.  I wore Sho-Air kit and felt like a trader.  Had I known....

The weather was pretty good today with some cloud cover to keep it cool.  Except for the cold air on the way down on Silverado, arm warmers were only optional for the ride.  Winds were pretty low, although some seemed to have kicked up a little on Irvine Blvd, it seemed pretty calm for most of the ride.

After taking off from BJ's and meeting Noah at Portola/Jamboree, we were off.  The climb up Jamboree already had the pace up and ultimately, Shannon, Vince and Noah broke off near the top.   Mitch and I followed with Eddie not far behind.  Jaffe had fallen off a bit, but we regrouped once we got on E. Santiago.

We were holding a good pace going toward Cannon, and I started worrying that it may have been too fast.  I felt a little more warmed up though, so the guys saw to it to let me go ahead and set the pace up to the of the hill.  Near the top, Noah wanted to know whether there were any points involved.  Of course, not wanting to get dropped, I said no.  

Rather than stopping at the top, we went ahead to Nohl and for the most part, regrouped.  When we got to the climb up Nohl, Shannon took off with the intent to big ring it up this hill as he had done up to this point.  He had broken away but Lookador reeled him in.  Vince hadn't warmed up yet at this point, and I was riding with him for a bit.  At one point, his pace had slowed, so I passed him knowing it would not last.  Sure enough, he came by where I jumped on for a bit but he broke off near the top.  Mitchell and Eddie followed shortly, but there was no sign of Jaffe.  We thought he may have double-backed to meet us on Cannon, but just before we were going to take off, we saw Jaffe coming unwilling to take any shortcuts.  What a trooper.

Vince took off toward Cannon with a sense of urgency and probably warmed up by this point.  He and Eddie actually had a good gap on us, but Shannon and I were able to catch up.  Going down Cannon was also at a good clip, so Noah had fallen off a bit but ended up catching the light on E. Santiago and stay within sight of us.  He eventually caught up and started charging up some of the hills just before the cemetery to keep us all honest. 

We passed another Sho-Air guy, who had asked if we were a part of their group ride.  I told him we weren't, and offered to let him ride with us as we were also heading to Silverado.  However, when we slowed to regroup before the canyon, he went ahead and turned left without us probably thinking we were done. 

Once we regrouped, we started up the canyon with Shannon keeping a strong steady pace allowed us to not only reel in Sho-Air guy, we also reeled in a guy in a Simple Green kit.  However, when we passed him, he started to climb standing up and riding with us but just to our right (WTF?).  When Shannon rolled off, Vince took over and then Noah, but Simple Green guy seemed like he wanted to show us he can get up there faster.  He started to attack and although I didn't have BRCM on, I felt obligated to defend.  I was able to spin up and pass him but I didn't really know how far/hard this guy wanted to go.  When I looked back and noticed he dropped off, I thought I'd go ahead and save some to try to keep up with the others as we made our way down.  Simple Green eventually passed and kept going while we regrouped.  Once we got going, it didn't take too long to reel him in again and ultimately drop him before we got to Silverado.  Good strong pulls all the way out with Eddie taking a solid turn at one point. 

On Silverado, Vince and Noah kept going and Shannon took a little bio break just off the first road and waited to make sure Jaffe knew where to turn...what a guy.  Mitchell and I couldn't decide whether to wait or go on, and ultimately decided waiting for Shannon would mean he'd only break away, so we took off.  Vince and Noah must have charged the hill, as they were no where in sight once we got started.   We eventually saw them at the top where we regrouped and refueled.

Noah started the downhill (for obvious reasons) and Vince and Eddie eventually made their way to the front.  It took Shannon and I a good portion of the downhill to finally catch up to these guys since they were railing through the turns pretty good.  We all kept taking turns keeping the pace high all the way to the bottom.


We were still moving at a good clip through the canyon and once we got on Modjeska, Vince and Shannon took off.  Shannon had stopped to make sure Jaffe found the turn and Eddie went straight so he can get back in time.  Mitchell and I were again wondering if we should wait for Shannon and Jaffe, and as we concluded before, it was probably just better to go so off we went. 


We did see Noah and Vince charging up Modjeska unlike Silverado, but once they got to the top, they kept going.  I got ahead of Mitchell and since Vince and Noah had taken off, I thought I'd go ahead and hopefully run into them at Cooks.  On my way down the grade, I actually could not slow down fast enough and blew the stop but stayed on the left side.  There were some guys on mountain bikes, but fortunately, there was room to get by them until I can slow and cross over to the other side.  

I pretty much just rolled down to Cooks looking for Noah and Vince, but they were no where in sight.  I ended up waiting for Mitchell, Shannon and Jaffe at the base and after confirming Vince and Noah were gone, we took off.  Shannon and I went up the hill at a good pace and at the top decided we'll just let the others catch up at the Park down below where we were going to get some water.  We were charging down the hill, and made sure to stay clear of any approaching gold Nissans where we met Vince and Noah at the Park.  Mitchell and Jaffe followed shortly behind.

Based on the time and the elevation we had gained by this point, we decided to just go up to Santa Margarita, El Toro and Trabuco/Irvine Blvd.  On the way up the hill, Vince and I charged up and broke away for a bit but got caught on the light going across Antonio.  At the light, Vince would take off with a sense of urgency and seemed to be trying to break away only to get caught up on lights.

Mitchell was leading us up the hill after Alicia, and Vince, Shannon pushed forward and eventually created a gap between Noah and Jaffe where they ended up getting caught at a light on Marguerite.  The 4 of us pushed on and decided to keep going.  Vince, Shannon and I were taking turns on Trabuco/Irvine Blvd pushing a pretty made pace with no one wanting to let up.   Mitchell took a turn up front after Jeffrey or Culver keeping the pace up in the 28+ range.  As usual, there was no warm down and we just kept pushing all the way to the turn to the parking lot.  Despite the 5000+ feet of climbing, the average was just under 19 for me (19.2 moving though). 

Another good training ride today followed by pizza and beer.  I was pretty dead by the time I got home and once again passed out as soon as I got to my bed.  This was not only a good trainer for L'Etape but should also help for next week's Gran Fondo.

Thanks to all who came out.  Jaffe, keep coming out as you'll only get stronger and stronger.  Then you won't wonder why everyone is getting so fast at lunch.  Good job today.