Strava: http://app.strava.com/activities/4377000
What a nice day for a ride. The winds have actually calmed down enough to where it was actually pleasant outside. It did feel warm at some spots, but overall, it's definitely one of the better days as of late. The guys waited for me to come out at noon, and while I'm thankful, I somewhat wish in the back of my mind I went solo...less pain. Shannon, Galen, Adrian, Seon, Vin, Mitchell and Hiroshi came out for today's ride, and although a decent sized group, it would have been nice to share the pain with more. Seriously. PV did come out on his mountain bike but with a different agenda, and David and Peter had come out too but had their own group ride going as well.
Galen, Shannon, Adrian and I got the pace going pretty good all the way to Harvard and it did make it hard for some of the others to keep up. We did manage to regroup at the light though. We stayed together on Harvard throughout, and Vin did take a pull from one of the lights before the bike trail. Some time after we got on the bike trail though, the 4 of us were alone. Understandably so, though, given that by the time we hit Portola, we had averaged over 24 mph. Adrian had dropped during the last climb, and I popped off just before the top.
Despite Galen having gone out and blazed nearly a 22 mph average on a 30 mile loop with 2K elevation this morning, he launched a breakaway at the turnaround that was just brutal. Although strung out from the start with Adrian turning around early to join me, the 3 of us were working hard to pull Galen in. It took almost until the end of the bike trail for Adrian and Shannon to catch up to him as I popped off just before doing so.
I was hoping not to have to ride with those guys anymore, and even missed one light right before catching back up to Adrian. However, fate saw it today that I suffer where I ended up running into all 3 of them as they crossed Barranca to get back on the bike trail. I was hoping not to have to get up front anymore after that since I was still trying to catch my breath, but after the bridge and 1 skipped rotation, I jumped back in.
While we weaved and dodged all the traffic on the bike trail as we made our way (just as we had done on the way out), we stayed together for the most part. On the straight by Main (where the church is) though, Galen cranked it up a notch and while I hung on as best as I could, I eventually waved Shannon and Adrian on as it was just too much. I think you can call me Orville Redenbacher because no one popped on today's ride as much as I did.
I did manage to catch up to Adrian again on University and we rode together only to run into Shannon and Galen on the intersection before the Jamboree climb. Galen saw to it that he broke away here also. I tried to give chase using a steady pace, but he had such a good gap early on that it was just enough not to let him continue to increase it at some point.
Galen made the left turn on Bison, while the 3 of us regrouped to cross. We thought we were done with him, but he ended up waiting for us at McArthur just to dole out even more pain. At the light, I cautiously got up front and tried to time the lights accordingly. Shannon had setup the first light on the bridge just right and got a jump, but I entered full sprint mode soon after. I thought I was moving at a pretty good clip, but to my left I see Galen making his way past me. Adrian, however, had set it up just right and came by both of us to get to California first. Nice!
Yeah, I'm thinking that the group riding dynamics now warrant more planning than just pure execution. It is way too fast not to do so unless one enjoys riding alone or in a chase group. The bar is definitely high now, but it wouldn't be BAM not to welcome the opportunity to improve. That's what I'll keep telling myself anyway.
Thanks for the workout, gents!
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