BRCM Lunch - Hill Trainer (aka Vince's Puke Route)

GPS stats:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/86687051

I guess given the weather the last few days, a lot of people were itching to get out today resulting in 13 (plus 3 from Wed/Fri crew - David, Peter, and one other guy) coming out to tackle the hills. Unfortunately, Vin came in with what looked like a rear tire that wasn't safe for the hills and got held back with Seon who stayed behind to help him.  Vince, being fashionably late...again, let us go ahead and also did not start the ride with us.

S-Gary led us out in his usual frantic pace in the beginning, and he and Todd took turns up front to get us to the base of NPC where everyone in the group stayed together the whole time.  If I missed anyone else pulling at that point, it was hard to tell from the very back.

Once on NPC, S-Gary got another rear flat (not having a lot of luck on the loaner lately) but insisted everyone else go ahead.  I tried to stop and Verm actually came back to help, but he wouldn't have any of it.  Looking up after, Todd and Shannon were all ready starting to pull away from the others where it took a bit just to catch up and ride with Adrian, Hiroshi, and Mitchell.  Adrian, Mitchell and I worked together to get us to the top where we managed to catch the light to Ridge Park with Todd and Shannon.

Going up Ridge Park, Hiroshi was in attack mode and actually passed Shannon at one point ahead of me.  Shannon eventually passed, but Hiroshi kept the pace up and got up to the top behind the two.   It took coming back from the extra credit to actually be able to catch up to the guy too.  Great job!

Hiroshi, Verm and I got caught at the light at the bottom of Vista and just didn't see the two ahead of us anymore after that.  We descended together down NPC and upon going up Pelican, I thought I had a pretty good pace when out of nowhere, Hiroshi launches another attack and passed me with some authority.  It took some effort to catch back up and eventually get past him too.  When I was ahead going up the final climb on Pelican, I actually thought Hiroshi had reeled me back in given how well he was doing today.  Near the top, I thought I'd try and shake him off, but it ended up being super stud, Vince, who passed me no problem.  Vince also just caught the green light to NPC ahead of me, so I had to wait at the red where Verm caught me.

On Vista, we started the climb and could see Adrian not too far ahead of us.  I was hoping to close the gap on him at one point, but he must have picked it up a lot when he hit the flat section.  I was hoping to catch him on the last hill, but he was more than half way up by the time I reach the base.

At the top, I didn't see anyone there from our original group (I did see David and Peter just making it up Ridge Park). Since I was pressed for time, I headed back by myself and saw S-Gary just making his way up Ridge Park (probably doing repeats).   

The wind was pretty rough in some sections today including Bonita Canyon, but overall definitely better than it's been the last few days.  It was nice to finally get out and ride with the guys again today, and super effort from a lot of those out there.

Thanks for the workout!