2-man Century - Dana Pt to Torrey Pines and Back

Vince's GPS stats:   http://connect.garmin.com/activity/90461189

We were hoping to have more come out today, but in the end, Vince and I made this trek alone.  It was a beautiful day, so we weren't complaining for sure. 

The plan was to meet at the people's bridge in Dana Point at 7 a.m., but when I got there promptly, no one.  I knew Vince was going to park in Doheny, so I went and found him in the parking lot...still getting ready.  Thank goodness I didn't accept his 6:30 a.m. offer.  HA HA. 

With next week's Bear ride coming up, I'm glad he was on board for some tempo riding today.  That pretty much summarizes the ride throughout, and we both took some good turns up front to maintain the tempo.  There didn't seem to be a lot of people out there, but we did start picking off some people in Carlsbad. The view was awesome today, and the waves seemed like they were going off up and down the coast.

Just before Del Mar, I did set my sights on one guy ahead of us who I saw that seemed to be moving at a good pace.  Slowly and steadily, we reeled him in and he ended up joining us (okay, riding our draft) afterwards.  We also picked up another guy from the Mira Mesa Cycling Crew, and just after getting out of downtown Del Mar, it looked like he was wanting to mix it up.  Vince stayed with him, and I was just off the back having a Stinger in preparation for the Torrey hill.  When we thought we'd get to mix it up going up Torrey, he peels off to the left to go on Carmel Valley Road.  Oddly enough, we see the rest of his crew at the top of Torrey Pines later when we were on our halfway point break. 

The plan originally was to go up the hills via Torrey Pines Road, but when we saw that the guy who joined us was going up the steeper inside way, Vince and I decided to join him instead.  Type A at it's finest.  Going up the descent, it looked like he was going to have some game, but midway through the steeper bottom sections, he had dropped off.  I was trying to keep Vince's tempo after the steep parts, but he ended up taking off at one point and all I could do was watch from off the back.  I saw him fend off one other guy who he ended up passing where he tried to pass back.  Nice. 

We took a break at the top for a bio break and some nourishment.  At this point, we were only down 1 water bottle, so the tempo riding was helping to keep us from needing too much hydration.  2 waffles, a couple fig newtons and a refilled bottle later, and we were off again.

It was fun going down Torrey Pines Dr. and we made our way up to a few guys by the time we got to Carmel Valley Road.  After the light, we ended up passing them up and didn't end up seeing them until we got to 15th street at Del Mar where we hit the red light.  Once it turned green, we started to roll forward when 2 of the guys we passed earlier decided they wanted to sprint down the hill at this point.  I chased them down in response and passed them both where the road forks.  I think they looked a little surprised...I live for those moments.  HA HA

One older guy did get in our draft, but he wouldn't take a turn up front.  Not a big deal, but the problem was he would pull up to the #2 spot needing us to jump up from the back when rotating.  He finally took a stab up front after Vince one time, but after I passed him (shortly after), he dropped off and didn't get back in our line again.

It was more tempo riding through the base, and we just kept taking turns.   When we got on Las Pulgas, Vince was running low on water, so we made our way up to the first state beach restroom for a refill.   We did pass one lady who was riding a bike with only one leg (her right) and another gentleman riding beside her.  When I noticed, I was in awe that she was performing such a feat, but I felt a little awkward saying "on your left" as we passed. 

I felt like I had a good tempo starting out, so I went ahead and took the pull from the restroom to El Camino Real back in San Clemente.  Vince took the front once we got there and led us to the base of the hill just before the protected bike paths.  We were still keeping a good pace up here and even when we crossed the street to go to the other protected bike path.  On the last stretch, we were still hitting speeds of 24 mph with Vince starting it off after he got up front.  I thought I'd go ahead and try to blow my legs out at this point, and pushed for the last section before getting to the light.

When we were riding through the parking lot in Capo Beach, Vince was up front and I was in his draft when this idiot on a beach cruiser decides to cut across us where we both got pretty rattled.  I was just able to pull to the right of Vince missing running into him.  With BRCM jerseys and Nacho Libre socks, we maintained composure and just kept going. 

Since Vince parked at Doheny and me at Dana Pt Harbor, we just split up after the ride.  I was pretty much done, and so was my perineum.  20 mph average for 100 miles for 2 guys tempo riding was a good day's worth of training.   Thanks, Vince!