Shannon's 2011 Tour de Poway Ride Report

Yesterday, Rich had the idea of repeating the Tour de Poway century.  Since I’d had a month long hiatus I thought it would good to join in.  Todd decided to come along,  and we filled him in on all the critical Strava segments enroute. 

For some reason there is only one mile from the starting line to the first KOM.  Rich was still slurring his words and shivering when we arrived.  Todd and I busted out around a swarm of Descenders and started making our way up.  Two other guys were holding us back, always speeding up to stay ahead, but then fading a bit, sort of gradually.  I couldn’t tell if the one big guy was trying to lead out the smaller guy or what.  In any case, it was a 3.5m/17min section, and we couldn’t blow off too much steam too early so we hung back.

I could tell Todd was not liking it and wanted to attack, but there was no way to launch one before the last third or so based on my own heartrate , primarily.

Eventually Todd did push the pace hard enough that the big guy got shot out the back, and there were only three of us.  I followed the small guy and eventually thought we were close enough to go for it.  I don’t recall all the details, but remember picking points on the horizon and just trying to get to them.  I haven’t seen Todd’s time yet, but I am sure we made the top ten for that segment, at near/sub 17mins.  Big guy and small guy were no where around in the end.

(Side note:  Looking through Strava I can see there were some real horses out there, one Descender has posted times minutes ahead of the rest of the field.  For some reason they were not trying yesterday.)

After the crest Todd and I regrouped and started a pace line.  Rich came up on us soon enough and then there were like a hundred riders.  We stayed with them for the rest of the first thirty miles, which included some incredible, high speed, descending.  Like Rich noted, the others were playing it a bit conservative, and once again we were ansy to get by.

Near the bottom of the hill disaster struck for Rich, and we got separated.  Thankfully Todd stayed to help him out, as there were just not a lot of riders to join up, and riding the last seventy solo would be more of a workout than

even Rich would enjoy.

Keeping with the lead group was pretty fun, the guys were a bit less agro than I’m used to.    It was definitely a ‘tour’ pace.  Lots of talking and usually a double line.  It was primarly Descenders in the lead group, there might have been forty of them.  They were definitely controlling the pace, temp, and dynamics.  It got a bit whippy where I was (in the back), but surprising enough everyone was making the lights and we knocked out the first~50m in great time.   There was a little territorial stuff going on, and a couple times they ran into each other while trying to maintain their place in line. 

Everyone wanted to keep together so the SAG lasted about two minutes, with guys sprinting to the facilities and running back to their bikes.  I thought we’d have a decent shot at making sub 5hrs and assumed that was the plan.  The cool temps and high pace were nice!  Really nice.

I wasn’t doing much work and would only go forward on hills to keep an eye on things.  The pace ended up getting a bit mellow, whereas I thought they would ratchet it up.  About mile 80 I realized the pace was too low and we wouldn’t make the time I wanted, so I made my way to the front.  After a ten miles some others started talking about working together and closing gaps, but that didn’t happen.  One younger guy did take the lead, but there were two seniors behind him, blocking, so after a mile or so the pace gradually slowed and it was enough already.  At that point the group got a lot smaller.

In the end one other Descender was riding real strong and we traded some blistering pulls down Pomerado, then closed it out.  Overall the roll time was right on 5hrs, but total elapsed was more like 5:10.  Still, pretty good, and I was happy to be sitting in the shade as it kept heating up. 

Thanks Rich/Todd, great ride.