I'm narrating a little blindly again given that my Garmin is still giving me problems, but the pace heading out to Bonita Canyon didn't seem too bad. It was obvious, however, that Galen learned his lesson yesterday and did not take the front during that time. Todd and I led out, and Vince took the last pull.
When we got on Bonita Canyon, Vince and Galen were pushing the pace while the rest of us just watched in anticipation of Turtle Rock. Since no one posted their stats either, I don't know how we did. Everyone stayed together for a while, and I thought Jaffe was even making his way up to the front at one point. After all, it is his "hood." The pace, however, got a little too hot for him eventually, which left the remaining four of us make our way up. Vince took the last pull and had the best chance of beating my challenge to take this segment, along with the following Shady segment, away from me. We'll see.
On Shady, the 4 of us continued working together, but at one point Galen decided he wasn't going to keep up going up the hill. Vince launched an attack near the top with Todd and I trailing not too far behind as we went over the crest.
Vince kept the gap all the way to the bridge, but Todd and I eventually made our way up to him after. Galen also made his way up to us, so we all headed to Ridgeline together.
On Ridgeline, I took the front initially and tried to start up the hill at a good pace (~20-21 mph). Eventually, Vince jumped up front with Todd behind, and I was just able to jump on and ride with them for about 95% only getting gapped just before we hit Turtle Rock again.
After regrouping with Galen at the top, we proceeded toward Shady. We saw Irvine PD sitting at the first intersection, where we all obediently stopped as we normally do. :) When we headed to Sunnyhill, we saw Jaffe was actually not too far behind and was glad he was just as obedient as we were.
Going up over the Shady rise toward Bonita took some trading off up front, and the same heading down. Galen led most of the way down, and no one contested for a sprint to the bike trail opening as usual. I had thought about taking the front, but my left calf that was twinging earlier finally reached a point of a full cramp. I hate when that happens, but I did expect it today.
Galen went ahead on Anteater, and I waved Vince and Todd to go ahead without me due to my calf problem, but when I saw I could make the left turn on Turtle Rock ahead of them (since they crossed and waited to go straight), I played rabbit since my cramp temporarily subsided. Both of them caught me as expected midway up the hill, but I tried to get back on Todd's wheel near the top only to have my calf fully lock up at that point. At least I made it to the top, so I was able to coast all the way back down to Bonita Canyon. Jaffe wasn't far behind here, so he ended up running into the 3 of us while we waited for the long light. Here, I let the guys know I was skipping the "duplex" and since no one felt they had it in them to take the segment on Strava, they all agreed to do the same. Funny how Strava can do that to our rides.
Vince led on Bonita Canyon and since my cramp subsided again (after some fluids), I decided to help take the front to keep the pace up. After getting under the 73, the cramp came back so Todd and the remaining 3 passed me and basically left me for dead. HA HA...just kidding. I made it back at crawl speed, so if/when I am able to upload my data, prepare for it to reflect my suckiness.
Thanks for the workout, gents. The masochism continues tomorrow....
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