The Portola Challenge

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/rides/2021399


You ever see the dog races where the greyhounds chase the mechanical rabbit around a track.  Picture that for today's ride, but instead, imagine that the greyhounds are rabid, hungry, and the mechanical rabbit was leaking actual blood as it went around the course.  That might just be how today's ride can be described.

The plan was I would take off 2 minutes early, everyone would be entitled to leave anytime after that to chase me down.  The route was Portola OAB with a Jamboree finish.  First one to pass me wins and anyone who doesn't pass me before CA pay $1 to the team post ride festivities fund.  Simple enough, right?   Two things I would do different though if we do this again:  either add 1-2 more minutes for the rabbit or use better yet, use a stronger rabbit.

I took off on time and managed to get past the first 2 lights with minimal waiting.  By the time I got on University, I sat and sweated out the light and saw that 11:45 had come and gone.  Once the light changed, I was off and trying my best to manage a consistent TT type pace vs. killing it only to fall short and be caught right away.  Slow and steady wins races, right?  Not with these hungry animals.  I couldn't believe I already saw them on approach once I got to the light to cross Barranca on Harvard.  I had done upwards of 23 mph average getting there, so just imagine what these guys were doing.

Fortunately, I got the light just as they were starting to cross the bridge, so I just put my head down and kept going.  I believe I had to stop at one light on Harvard, but looking over my shoulder, I didn't see anyone coming yet.  I still knew it was only a matter of time.

As I made my way toward Portola, I was certain that they were going to catch me.  I was surprised when I looked back at the base of the climb just before Portola that I didn't see anyone.  After turning around and heading back down, however, my heart jumped shortly after seeing PV leading out 5-6 guys making their way up to the turn around point.  How could this be?  I was at 22.4 mph average at this point!  How fast were these guys going?!?

I did see Marc, Jaffe, Gary and David off the back making their way toward Portola as well, but I had no time for socializing.  The rabid dogs behind me were hungry!  Since it was downhill, although with a slight breeze, I just tucked down and kept going hoping to keep them at bay at least until Harvard.  Thoughts of a 3 minute headstart were definitely looming in my head at the time.  Then I heard it.  A familiar voice...Adrian telling me to pick it up as he made his way past me earning the designated prize.  5-6 other guys passed at that point (Garmin showed 22.6 average), and I have to say I was just glad it was over...or so I thought.

These guys weren't satisfied with just catching me...they still wanted to put the hurt on the rest of the way back.  BAM!  There was no way I was getting back in the rotation based on the pace.  Verm, Todd, Shannon, PV, Adrian and Mitchell were working together and all I could do was hang on.  There were some ridiculous pulls out there, and at one point, we ran into Vince who decided to join the mayhem and keep the pace up on the trails heading to CA and Jamboree.

Shannon took the last pull to CA, and no one was willing to participate in this common sprint point at that time.  The crazy thing was I heard he didn't even start with the rest of the group and was about 2 minutes behind only to reel them in by Harvard.  By himself.  Absurd.

Vince broke off at Jamboree to head toward BB and do his own thing, so he didn't join us going up Jamboree.  Todd and I started about the same time, but I jumped ahead with him sticking to me like white on rice.  Literally, right?  Anyway, I had a pretty good pace going up but about 2/3 of the way up, LTJ makes his move and works his way past me.  I was definitely more fresh at this point, so I was able to catch his wheel as he passed and found some renewed energy just before the crest.  so I took it...and broke a major rule of engagement (Top Gun, 1986).  I got by LTJ and also ended up getting the KOM on Strava (sorry, Noah).  LTJ is a competitive fellow though, so he wasn't too happy about it.  Since I know BAM mentality though, I expected nothing less.  If he didn't push that last part, I wouldn't have pushed any harder either, so thanks to him for doing so.

After all that, these guys were still pushing it on Bison.  The average speeds reach by the others were amazing!  PV and Shannon were in the 22.9 and Todd hit 23.4, with Strava even having deducted a 10th according to his display.  We'll have to throw that into the next challenge...best average speed.  We're probably also going to need to find a safer playground at these speeds.

Congrats to Adrian and the others.  I hope everyone enjoyed the challenge.  I didn't.  Great training day.