Strava: http://app.strava.com/rides/2506477
Attendees: Shannon, Galen, Adrian, Hiroshi, Seon, Vin, Jeremy, Peter, Robert, Mitchell and David
Good sized group came out today to do some work after the holiday weekend. I took us out initially on to Anteater, but Jaffinator helped out and rotated some pulls as we made our way to Bonita Canyon. Once there, we rode the Galen express as we made our way toward San Miguel with Adrian taking a final pull just before the left turn.
On San Miguel, Galen led us up originally, but I opted to bring up the pace a little and took the front leading up to the light to turn left. When the light turned green, Team Focus jumped ahead and created a nice little gap from the others including myself. When it flattened out a little before the last rise, I was going to sprint up but wanted some extra gears to do so where I decided to use the small ring up front.. This, however, led to my chain dropping despite having a chain catcher where I had to pull off interrupting Adrian and Shannon's pace to get it fixed. I had to get off the bike to do so since the chain catcher wouldn't let me just pull the chain back up onto the ring. Of course, by the time I did, everyone else was gone...except for Peter who was just making his way up to me.
I finished the hill and got caught at the light on San Joaquin where I could see others more than half way up the hill. By the time I was able to go, there was no point in blowing up trying to catch everyone so I opted for a steadier pace in anticipation that I'd be riding alone for the rest of the ride.
While I'd catch glimpses of 1 or 2 of our guys ahead of me, that soon faded after getting stuck at the light at NPC and Ridge Park. I probably should have taken the shortcut here had I known the light would take so long.
Once the light turned green, I picked up the pace a little and jammed through Pelican hoping to see someone...anyone...but nope. I kept the pace up as best as I could on PCH, and decided to skip Ocean to see if I can possibly see others coming out of Avocado. Instead, I ran into Hiroshi on McArthur at the light.
Hiroshi got the jump at the light, but I was eager to see if we can still run into the others where I took the front and brought the pace up to a respectable 25-26ish toward the last stretch before Jamboree. With no one in sight still, we pushed on after the Jamboree light into Back Bay. Hiroshi took a pull early on after the gate and then one more pull some time after San Joaquin, but left me solo after that to finish the rest of Back Bay and Jamboree.
At the top while waiting to cross Jamboree to Bison, I saw Hiroshi and some others making their way to the left turn lane. Thankfully, my light turned green first and I started rolling down Bison only to be caught by light. Of course, once the light turned green, it was perfectly timed for the others to roll by where we all got together at the subsequent light. This was where there was dialog exchange with Jeremy seemingly happy to have beaten me up Spyglass despite my chain dropping. You go, boy! HA HA
Once the light turned green, Galen led us out and I figured I'd give the final sprint a go. Thank goodness Galen couldn't respond by that time, but Vin seemed eager to try to get by. Not this time, young guy.
Bummed I missed riding with the group, especially through BB where I hear Galen and Shannon were killing it. It was still a good training day for me nonetheless. Now where are those damn compression pants?!?
Thanks, gents!
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