Strava (late start and malfunction through BB) - http://app.strava.com/rides/5477308
I chose today's route to keep it fairly flat and fast in order to prepare for the Great Park crit that I hope to participate in this Thursday. Adrian, Vince, Mitchell, Vin, Hiroshi, Jaffe and Todd came out for it and made me realize that I should probably take up knitting instead. I'll still go this Thursday, however, but I probably will not don the BRCM colors to prevent dishonoring it.
Getting on the bike trail at the bottom of CA is always fun when you're at the very back...not. Gotta love that mad accordion effect.
Adrian led by the time we got to Back Bay, and little did he know we were plotting from Bldg 11 to hold him out for a while to neutralize his sprints. However, that didn't end up working too well since he eventually was going so slow up front that guys on row boats in the bay were passing us. Others started to move up as a result and the rotations began. I thought about getting up front sooner, but I decided it best to wait my turn. It was good to see everyone taking turns although Todd did get held out a while, but I've learned not to worry too much about Todd. Vince was taking turns as well despite his hiatus and condition, so I don't see it being too long before he's back putting the hurt on.
For the first Prime, I was trying to see when Adrian was going to take off and had not expected him to do so as early as he did. Once he took off, Vin and I gave chase and although I made ground, Adrian still got to the gate before me. When I realized I wasn't going to catch him, I decided to use it as an opportunity to break away instead knowing he was going to recover from the sprint.
I managed to keep the group off for a while but they caught me just before I made my way back onto Bayside drive. I think Todd pulled everyone back up onto me from my quick glance back, or it could have been a combined effort.
On the 2nd pass through Back Bay where the 2nd Prime was, cars prevented it from being safe to run a sprint to San Joaquin. Thus, we all took turns pushing the pace up front. Adrian launched a sprint at the top of Back Bay, but it was not a defined sprint point for today's ride, so.... :)
On Jamboree, Todd broke away as expected. Vin had a good run up too, and it took a lot just to catch up to him before we got to the Bison light where Todd went through ahead of us. We did manage to catch up to him at the Ford light, but so did everyone else including Vince who came darting by just as the light had turned green.
On Jamboree, Todd and Vin broke away and I remained with the 4-5 guys believing we could catch them at some point. However, the effort to do so was not very well coordinated and it took telling the guys that one guy (Mitchell) can't do it by himself by the trailer park to get everyone to start pushing up front. When I took my turn, I ended up getting winded and rolled off to the back. Upon exiting the bike trail onto Back Bay Drive, however, I ended up not latching on after again being accordion'ed off. Vince had been working with the guys we were with, but had fallen back where I was able to catch him and work together for awhile, but we never were able to make ground on the 4 guys in front of us. From what I hear, the 4 were also not able to close the gap on Todd and Vin either.
I was fortunate enough to run into them at the light at the bottom of California. Even going up California, there was still a lot of kick in the group and they were charging up the hill (after stopping at the first light) upwards of 20-21 mph. Todd got up to the top first, but I was coming up just behind him with Vin latched on to me.
Todd definitely had a lot of fight in him today as expected given that we missed the Bulldog race. The surprise performance was from Vin who set up the ride to finish strong although had received criticism (source withheld to protect the innocent) for not taking enough pulls early on. That's how it is sometimes though, so whatever it takes to finish like he did today, kudos.
Now as to this Superman finish in the title, this isn't some heroic feat at the end of the ride but more so me flying over my handlebars after either miscalculating a jump onto the sidewalk or inadvertently hitting the front brake when lifting the bike up from the hood. It's so nice to hit the pavement after a long grueling ride I always say. Fortunately, I landed on my hands and was able to roll not causing too much physical damage (although my right wrist hurts now), and as for my bike, my left shifter suffered some aesthetic damage as well. Bummer. The most damage was probably to my ego given I must have looked mentally challenged as I went over the handlebars right by the gym. Lame.
Now about that knitting....
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