Strava: http://app.strava.com/rides/2673389
GC: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/134085217
The premise behind today's ride was to try and emulate the Stagecoach with a long local route with minimal stops so that 1) we can get some good training in and 2) it would help determine who would best make up the participants of a 2nd team. Adrian, Verm, S-G, and Vin came out for today's ride, while Shannon came along to keep us honest and help with the assessments.
I was hoping that the ride would be fairly controlled throughout to help us manage power so that we can succeed without stopping too much. As we headed down California and made our way to Back Bay, we were doing pretty good to stay together, but Shannon decided he wanted to work on his aero position and started to open it up creating a pretty good gap. Gary was the next guy in line who yelled out "Gap!" but Shannon was on a mission. I decided to break rank and took off after him to get on his rear wheel dragging everyone else behind me. I wasn't about to try and keep Shannon's pace by rotating in, so I just stayed on his rear wheel until he got out of Back Bay as did everyone else. I think Vin popped off the back for a little bit, but he managed to catch up as we entered the 2nd bike trail to lead to Bayside.
On PCH, everyone was rotating up to the front and helping to keep the pace up but not too high. Once we got on SART, these rotations continued...some were stronger than others, but nonetheless, everyone did what they could. At one point, Vin ended up being behind Shannon (a rather zealous place for him to be), but when I offered to take the spot, he indicated he was fine. What we noted, however, was that after passing Shannon to take his turn, his pull lasted for probably no more than 5-10 seconds and the pace would then drop. I guess he gets an A for effort.
We made it all the way to the Honda Center without any stops, across, and then to Taft still not taking any breaks at this point. We did encounter some lights here and there, but for the most part, it was just go, go, go. When we made our way to E. Santiago, Shannon decided to again keep us honest and brought up the pace on his pull. Verm, Adrian and I were still game, and managed to stay with him along with offering some relief after with more rotations.
When we got to the Jamboree/Santiago intersection, Verm cut across and relieved himself while the rest of us waited for the light to turn green. Once it did, we were on again. Verm jumped ahead at first but fell back to the group. Then, Shannon decided to up the pace, but as we crossed the 261, we did so differently where we didn't really get to ride behind him. Instead, Adrian and I worked to reel him in and eventually be up with him again after the downhill. Verm also ended up catching us as well, so the four of us were rotating between us as best as we could. As we got closer and closer to Silverado, Adrian had a little back spasm and had to pull over to the right but almost causing Verm to run into the dirt. I passed and asked them to talk, and then Verm and Shannon came with me to go to Silverado.
Once we got to the base, Verm went into Verm mode and took off seemingly wanting to attack the hill. I set a good pace and followed him, but Shannon stayed back where we always wondered when it will be that he'll be passing us.I eventually reeled Verm in, and we did a couple rotations to a very managed pace. Verm decided he wanted to go faster, so he took off at one point. I didn't really want to interrupt my tempo at the time, but i did bring it up some just to be close enough where I could keep an eye on Verm. Plus, I knew I'd catch him on the downhill.
Steve reached the top first, and I called out to him to keep going...so he started descending. I looped around at the top and started to give chase, but Verm had a pretty good jump on me. I couldn't see him for the longest time, but I did see Adrian, Shannon, Gary and Vin making their way up still. It took about 70% of the hill where I finally got closed in on Verm, but he was definitely charging all the way. Since Verm was on breakaway mode, I decided to ride off his back and just see how he was doing. I at least wanted to see what kind of pace he'd hold going up Dump Hill. Verm did really well as he made his way there, so I thought I'd roll up to him at the top of Dump and ride down together to the gas station at the corner of Jamboree.
Adrian rolled up shortly after, and I picked up some Cokes and water for the guys, and refilled my one bottle along with chowing down a waffle and a honey gel. Once Gary and Shannon rolled in, I could feel my legs tightening up so we handled them the water and Cokes and Adrian, Verm and I were off.
We made our way toward E Santiago Canyon to get to Cannon, and at one point, Adrian passes me followed by Verm and had gapped me a bit but i didn't react right away figuring I'd catch them at a light or something. Sure enough, it was a light before Cannon. We started riding together up Cannon and made our way onto Taft and the rotations were just random here as we made our way through the streets. Once we got back on SART, however, the plan was that we would run about a 80% pace while rotating and this went very well with everyone passing smoothly all the way down to PCH. We had a couple riffraff join our paceline and take a couple pulls, but that was about it.
We didn't stop once we got on PCH, but we did see a crap load of lamborghinis driving south together. It was a cool sight...for a minute. We then rode on and started to get some gels in us while riding. Then, we managed a strong pace going out to NPC where we ended up crossing from the light.
On NPC, Verm jumped ahead and created a little gap in the beginning, so i decided to use the same position I tried on Friday. I was worried it wouldn't work, but fortunately I held the off-the-seat position all the way to the light at the top. After getting slowed down at the 2nd Pelican Light and getting held at a Red at Vista Ridge, I turned around after it turned green to see Adrian making his way toward me. What better way to get a run down NPC. He and I took turns and managed to get the light on the bottom (Bonita Canyon) and we jumped to the left. We were both willing at this point to blow up our legs, but they held up and we kept a good pace going up and around McArthur.
I even set Adrian up for a final sprint and just said let's go where he passed me pretty easily at this point. I was hoping by chasing him would give me a 21 average. Although Stravo only shows 20.9, My Garmin said 21. mph as the average pace. We probably need to do it again...and with more!
Thanks, Gents
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