Strava: http://app.strava.com/rides/4876442 (stopped working for 2 miles but started up again)
It's been said time and again that you can't come out to our lunch ride and not have your 'A' game. Well, I guess you can but at some point you have to expect to be riding alone. That's exactly how it ended for me, but more on that later.
Todd was back from some skiing up in Colorado, so he definitely came out to show he had his high elevation lungs with him. Shannon, who has been doing some covert military-grade training, also wanted to assert some punishment, so these two guys broke away early and pretty much stayed away from the group after crossing the light headed toward San Miguel never to be seen again. I saw their pace early on, and I just didn't want any of that action...nor could I have held up for it.
The rest of us stayed together for the most part, and I was fine to do so considering how windy it was and how I pretty much absolutely hate windy days. However, everyone was attacking everywhere today and all I could do for the most part was just watch.
On Spyglass, I was able to make my way to the front of the chase group at one point, but Adrian spun into a sprint near the top pulling away from us.
On San Joaquin, it was Hiroshi, Mitchell and Vin who had broken away and I was just barely able to latch on near the top. As we made a right turn to Ridgeline (the shortcut vs. going straight to NPC), S-G was right there and ready to mix it up as well.
On Ridgeline, Hiroshi, Vin and Mitchell broke away and it took a long time just to be able to get by Vin and Mitchell. However, Hiroshi had broken away solidly and made the right turn on Vista well ahead of us. Nice job, Hiroshi!
When we did get on Vista, both S-G and Mitchell had gotten by on the descent and led down the hill with Vin and I just behind them where we ran into Hiroshi at the bottom as he waited for the light to turn green.
Hiroshi, Vin and Gary where up front taking turns as we made our way to Pelican, but Hiroshi and Vin got a jump once we started heading up. I was in the 3rd position as we were climbing but Mitchell came by and I ducked behind him to catch up and pass the other two guys.
At the bottom, I tried to take off but none of these guys were having any of it and stuck to me like glue the whole time all the way until we got to NPC and to the bottom.
After making the U-turn, Vin, Hiroshi and Mitchell jumped ahead of me and I thought I could methodically reel them in as I had done in the past: not today, friends....not today. S-G had passed me just after Pelican and had a nice rhythm going that I tried to match, but I couldn't figure out how. I decided to try and get back into a rhythm on the big ring but had problems where it wouldn't shift to do so. It was while I was trying to shift when Adrian passed me as he listened to my gears failing miserably to do so. I finally decided to make the best of the small ring and go taller in the back, but by the time I had done so, everyone was well ahead of me and I was making zero ground on any of them.
I did see a couple guys as I crested but they were just too far ahead and the lights up top didn't do anything to help me either. Thus, the rest of my ride was a lonely one. I almost abandoned riding up "the condo" because of this and since my Garmin wasn't registering a speed, but as I was approaching McArthur, it started to show a speed again. Damn! So I did it.
Good job to everyone out there. Shannon and Todd killed it and everyone else killed ME! Thanks!
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