Strava: http://app.strava.com/rides/1198067
Attendees: Todd, Adrian, Vince, Hiroshi, Jaffe, Jeremy, Seon, Vin, Joseph, Yong and Peter
A dozen cyclists made it out today with a couple new faces: Welcome Joseph and Yong(?). Considering yesterday's tragedy, I wasn't sure anyone was coming out. I'm glad everyone made it out despite.
Todd, despite not being 100%, still proved to be one of the group's workhorse. He led everyone all the way to Back Bay, and had Vince not jumped to the front, we all probably would have been content to sit in his draft the whole time. I did go up with Vince to help and also convinced Adrian to do so as well.
When we got to the San Joaquin kicker hill, Hiroshi decided to assert himself and attacked the hill with Vin just behind him. Nice attack! I think the consensus by the others was that there was still a lot of climbing to go.
On San Joaquin, we all pretty much stayed together until the last light before the climb. Vince, Todd and I broke away for a little bit but others weren't too far behind where after pausing at one intersection, others were back in the draft shortly thereafter.
On Ridge Park, we all managed to cross the intersection together. Vince led us up the hill originally, and I jumped ahead sometime after. Both Adrian and Jaffe passed me for a short period of time, but slowly fell back after. I led for a bit, but Todd and Vince made their way past me. I tried to hold their wheel, but it became futile after a while on the 39/26. Looks like Vince broke off of Todd's wheel near the top and kept the pace up earning him a Strava KOM to the top. Nice! I was struggling but looking back, I saw Hiroshi making his way up behind me. He was definitely starting to reel me in, so I kicked it up just enough to get to the top. He ended up just behind me when we got to the meet up point at the stop sign after the extra credit.
After regrouping, the descent down Vista was pretty fast paced. Vince and Adrian led the charge, and it took some work just to make up some ground from the back. If it wasn't for a truck getting in the way, it might have been impossible.
The charging on San Joaquin continued up through the first rise and down the descent. Have I mentioned how I love descending? What a rush! Vin even got in the mix at one point. Ah...to be young.
We ultimately made our way to Back Bay and upon the turn from San Joaquin, Vince decided to work the group and break away for a bit. Others lined up behind Todd to let this workhorse reel him back in, which he did eventually. Adrian took a turn up front to keep the pace up, which is always "fun." Some time after, I decided to take a rotation and tried to keep the pace up. When I started running out of gas, Vince launched an attack where I looked back hoping others would help defend. When I tried to close the gap, I tried to do so on a less than preferred bigger gear and blew up shortly after. Todd and Adrian came around so I jumped on their draft to the end. Vince had broken away and made it to the top first followed by the rest of us.
On Jamboree, Todd had gotten up with Vince and started to lead him away with a good gap ahead of me. All I could do at that point was just watch them as they kept pulling away. When they got on Bison, that was pretty much the last I saw of them. Adrian ended up catching me on Bison and we rode in together, but I guess the others had gone back and up California to finish their ride.
I observed some really solid performance out there from Jeremy, Jaffe, Hiroshi, Seon, Vin and Yong. Now I know what Vince was talking about the other day...damn the youth! It definitely makes me nervous to see these guys keep improving on every outing...that's a good thing.
Thanks for the workout today, gents! Glad it was a safe one.
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