GPS stats: http://connect.garmin.com/splits/83301450
PV's e-mail before the ride with a link to Nellie's "It's Getting Hot in Here" was pretty much spot on. It was a broiler out there today, or we just got used to the cooler (sometimes freezing) temps. In any case, my throat still friggin' hurts from the warm air!
Twelve of us made it out to this ride today, and several of us wanted to test changes to the bikes (shorter gearing) for this weekend. A few were also hurting from recent events or training, so that was apparent based on the initial pace through Anteater.
Gary and a couple others (PV and Mitchell?) did break away initially on Anteater where there was no interest in the rest of the group to chase them down. I, too, was "in it to spin it" borrowed from PV), but somehow found myself up front but back a ways from the 3. We all regrouped at the base of NPC.
Going up NPC, the pace picked up some with PV leading the way. I got behind him eventually and was testing out the spin when after the bridge, white smoke puffed out from his rear tire where he got a flat. While everyone else stopped to help (what a group), Noah and I slowed but started spinning up while the rest fixed PV's tire. Mitchell came to the rescue with his magic fix-a-flat and PV was on his way.
At the top, Shannon and Vince upped the pace some and ended up making a light before the descent while everyone else got caught behind it. It was nice to see that no one ran through, so Sandy still doesn't have a date for the next outing.
On the descent, PV and Gary were taking turns with Mitchell and Hiroshi in tow, while I was back a bit with Noah. Once we rounded Pelican, Hiroshi charged ahead on the first hill with the others spinning up behind him. I took the opportunity to get a little hill training in on the new compact, so I worked my way up past Hiroshi alternating between standing and a high spin. On the last part of the climb, it was nice to sit and still be in high 90's RPM.
Vince (and eventually PV) ended up taking a detour up Vista for more gear break-in/testing, and Mitchell and I caught Shannon at the San Joaquin light. There was a guy with Shannon at the light who got ahead at the start and also on the subsequent light, but we passed him just before the crest.
On the descent, I wanted to test out where I was going to spin out at, and it looked like I got up to 41 mph only...sigh. We were taking turns, with Shannon powering up on his turns requiring a little sprint just to latch on.
After McArthur, we got behind a female on a Felt tri-bike and I was not too eager to pass quickly. I'm not sure if the others were onboard though. We did catch a light together (she jumped it), but she seemed to check up afterwards (probably rightfully so), so we passed. We did see her again at the Jamboree light for the left turn, but she didn't follow us. Bummer.
On BB, Shannon, Mitchell and I were taking turns, and Shannon had powered up on a couple of them making it hurt. On the flat sections, we did average in the 26-28 mph range, and curiously, the compact crank didn't seem to be a factor (wink wink). At one point, Shannon was ahead and didn't notice some bushes on the road where he and I just missed them and didn't really have time to point out the hazard. As a result, Mitchell did graze some of the branches, but remained upright but startled as he should be.
I felt bad since I didn't get to call it out in time and waited to make sure he was okay...that and staying with Shannon was friggin' tiring. HA HA. Once he confirmed, we were off.
Shannon had gotten up to the top first and got across the street ahead of us. On Jamboree, he was pedaling seated, so I spun up and eventually got behind him pretty much riding up together with Mitchell just behind also.
I kept the pace up on Bison just to keep the average up and finished with a 19.4 average with 1.6K elevation...no record by any means but considering the heat, it was decent.
Good turnout today, guys, and good job on the hills in the heat.
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