For the record, if there's any ride where the primary solicitation to obtain interest is through the use of designated Strava segments, you may want to consider spin class instead if BAM isn't the mode in which you operate. Vince set up today's route and defined 4 segments that we would shoot for in advanced. Here are their names and links:
S-Gary Peltason
Spyglass
San J to Signal
Anti CA
Now the plan was to take it easy in between each segment so we can charge them hard, but things rarely ever work out this way...including today.
Once we rounded E. Peltason, Vince launched an assault where immediately I knew he was going for the first KOM. Oddly enough...he already held it. Can you say "maniacal?" Of course, I've always wanted to improve my position for this segment, but I rarely believe it's optimal considering it's so early on in the ride. I ended up giving chase, and although I didn't ever catch up to Vince fully, my start time was a little further back than his, so I managed to secure the top spot. I blew up my legs doing so, however, and could barely pedal on Bonita Canyon as everyone passed me. Shannon, Todd, Vince and Seon had gotten away off the front, but I managed to stay with others who pulled while I tried desperately to recover.
Unfortunately (fortunately for my legs though), the guys up front got the light ahead of us to head up San Miguel together and subsequently Spyglass. The rest of us just missed Spyglass and waited out a light before we were able to hit the next segment. PV had been up front but had to stop due to a chain drop. I think he ended up hitting it 2 more times just to start over and see what he could get. Crazy. I tried to hit it hard, but about 3/4 of the way up, I thought I felt my bike slow down unnaturally (the ol' dreaded brake rub), so as I neared the top I decided to check it out. I did notice that my rear wheel was not trued before I started the ride (after just getting it back!), so I figured I better check. Gary and the others stopped and although I encouraged them to continue, they helped me check it out and Gary opened up my brakes even more. This is not ideal for downhills, but who uses brake on downhills, right? I was opting to go back, but Gary just said come with us. I'm easy...so I did. It looks like the other guys were battling on this hill though, and Vince (KOM) and Todd took Robert Henderson down (as expected). I'm sure Shannon was up there too if he hadn't forgot his Garmin. Of all days....
We all started the next segment together (San Joaq hill) with Gary leading us out and the other guys ahead of us no where to be seen. I still managed to find a decent pace going up the hill, and Mitch stuck me like rice on sticky rice. In the end, it doesn't look like anyone advanced their position on this segment, but that's okay....9 out of the top 10 guys, including Vince being the KOM holder, are Team BRCM riders.
Despite the last segment defined for the ride not being until the "Anti-CA" (which just means a different way to get back to work other than using California Ave), the guys didn't let up hardly anywhere else...even places I thought we agreed we would. This did cause more Strava movements elsewhere, of course. A new segment was even created based on this horseshoe loop we did just off the top of San Joaquin, and this populated very quickly based on today's results with Adrian taking top honors from his solo outing. We'll have to fix this someday. :)
On the final segment, Todd wasn't feeling it so Shannon, Vince and I decided to give it a charge with Shannon taking the initial pull. I tried to get in front of him early on, but you know how that goes sometime. It took almost getting to where the trail forked before I was finally able to get passed and give the final lead out. Just before I popped, Vince swung around and charged it to secure the top spot here too...over his previous record from yesterday.
Overall, this was another day of sheer craziness for the books. I don't think I'll be following these guys on the trail atop Back Bay again though anytime soon in the frenzy they were in, but otherwise it was another awesome workout. As always, thanks, gents!
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