Attendees: Vince, Gary, Jaffe and Verm (intercepted us on Santiago)
This is what the temperature read when I was leaving this morning:
It even dropped down to 32 at one point on my way out, but it did manage to get up to a cozy 39 degrees by the time I got to BJ's. Gary was already in the parking lot when I got there, but neither of us seemed willing to get out of our cars right away but kept getting ready in the comfort of our vehicles. Vince showed up after and amazingly, Jaffe rode up from his house to join the fun as well. All of us seemed prepared for the cold weather, and I was going to wear a windbreaker since it was so cold. However, after seeing S-G man-up and not wear one and further see Vince not wearing any leg warmers, the vest came off.
I didn't realize how much the cold weather would affect all of us, but when we got going on Irvine Blvd, we could barely hold 18 mph. The cold air in the lungs just hurt. Power-wise, it felt like we should have been going well over 20 mph though. It took 5 miles just to be able to get up in the 20s. In a way, it was good Shannon didn't make it out as I'm sure this would have annoyed him immensely. HA HA
When we got to Bake, we were a little more warmed up so we picked up the pace some here. S-G was pushing up the hill and got ahead for awhile, but Vince and I were able to make our way past him. Vince and I were trading places as we made our way up, and I thought we had a pretty good gap on Gary and Jaffe by the time we got to Portola. When I asked Vince if we should wait for the others, he pointed behind us to show they weren't too far behind. Nice.
When we went up Glenn Ranch, S-G and I went through the intersection ahead of Vince and Jaffe, and S-G took advantage and made his way up to Saddleback ahead of the three of us. We weren't far behind though and we all turned left onto it pretty much with him.
On Saddleback, I got by S-G at the bottom and found a good rhythm to go up the hill. Midway up, Vince passed me, so I tried to stay with him but couldn't hold his wheel. I didn't fall too far behind, but I was able to close the gap some near the top. Thankfully so as I was able to make sure he made the right turn on Ridgeline.
After regrouping at Cooks, we were off again up the hill. S-G led us up for a bit until he made his way to another cyclist who had gone up just ahead of us. I then made my way up past them. Vince got up front near the first crest and I think brought the pace up gapping the others behind us. Once we got over the 2nd crest, Vince and I started working together down the hill.
After making our way through the canyon just before the lake entrance, we see Verm make a U-turn ahead of us to join the fun. This was just after Vince told me I needed to drink more since he still saw a lot of fluids in my bottles. I took a sip but I probably should have drank more had I known Verm was out for blood today.
Verm got in the rotation with Vince and I and led us up Dump Hill with Vince and I behind him. About 3/4 of the way up, Verm decides to accelerate and I had nothing. Vince went with and ended up passing him eventually, and I wouldn't see these guys until the light on Jamboree (in part because i was also caught on one of the lights over the toll road).
We regrouped across the street, and took off up Chapman. I led us originally and Vince got up front near the top and got us going down the hill. I made my way past him and began leading us up on Cannon. After one of the stop signs, I tried to accelerate and actually gapped Vince and Verm for a bit. Then, I popped midway up and Vince passed me first followed by Verm, who graciously warned me when he was passing me. :)
They got across E. Santiago ahead of me, and after the light, I started to make my way up. I could see Vince and Verm riding abreast ahead of me and not too far. I was just going to find a nice pace and hopefully meet them somewhere on the other side. However, sometime past midway up, I saw Vince holding Verm's bike while he took a bio break. I was struggling, so as I made my way past Vince I told him that I was and just kept going. Verm had already been making his way to his bike at that point, and they got on my wheel shortly after. I was waiting for them to pass, but I only heard Verm say "good job" at the top.
We got to the bike trail and used it to regroup with the others. At this point, the leg warmers had to come off. Once I peeled them off, the others were ready to go again. Verm led us out originally, and then we all started rotating. Even Jaffe took a couple pulls here but eventually decided it was best just to try and hang on. Vince, Verm, S-G and I kept working and there were some definitely strong pulls all the way down. S-G was there and rotating in up until the last bridge, but once we crossed, Vince opened it up and this just dropped it down to Verm, Vince and I. We were hauling ass and both Vince and Verm moved up on Strava to the #2 spots for this stretch...still behind mine from last year...but barely.
We regrouped on PCH but up to this point, we neither stopped for any water fill-ups or legal bio breaks (vs. in public...LOL). Once we got going, we were all still willing to work and kept rotating. Once we got past the Bayside, we started to go up Jamboree and Verm once again was in charge mode and started charging up the hill ahead of us. I decided to give him a little run on this hill given he's dropped me all morning long, so I reeled him and and accelerated past him where he couldn't jump on. It's my one BAM moment of the day. Jaffe must have broke off and went home his own way here since only 4 of us continued as we went across the Jamboree intersection.
Once we got to NPC, Verm started to lead us up and had a really strong pace still. I tried to hang on, but was just off the back. At one point, another guy passes me on the hill and says nice bike. He was on a BMC Team Machine, so I "let him" pass me. Yeah, that's it. He made his way up to Verm, and it looked like they rode to the top together.
We regrouped at San Joaquin and were thinking about going down it (I thought this was what Vince wanted to do, but he just didn't notice the route was actually to McArthur). Once we figured things out, we headed down NPC, Bonita Canyon and East Bluff. We thought there was a water fountain at the top of Back Bay only to find that there wasn't. We did find one on the bike trail to the right before California.
After the guys refilled their water bottles (S-G filling both despite 8 miles to go...he must have been hurting), we were off. I had 19.7 mph average on my Garmin when we were at the stop, so I told the guys it would be nice if we can get it up to 20 by the time we got back. We were all pretty spent, but we pushed on. S-G took some turns, but ended up succumbing to the pain and dropping off. Verm, Vince and I kept pushing. Verm still had a lot of energy left and brought the pace up on Harvard where it was difficult to relieve him after...but I did.
We were all still working once back on the bike trail and I just kept thinking we're almost back...we're almost back. When we finally got past the freeway, I was glad Bryan wasn't too far ahead. Verm ended up going his way (to the right) as Vince and I went ahead to make the left back toward BJ's. Vince was saying as we were making our way onto the road that his legs were done and quivering, but I convinced him we should still push on and as expected he was game and came with where we still reached almost 25-30 mph to finish off.
We were all worked, including S-G, who came in shortly after and no one was able to stick around after for some post ride decompression. Since Lisa went down to San Diego, I went in solo for a couple Piranhas and some eats...still good even alone.
Thanks for coming out even on the coldest of days, guys. It was good to see everyone working hard despite, so chalk up another good trainer for the books. Cheers!
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