Lunch Ride - aka Critical Mass

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/rides/6538531 (no medals again...sigh)

I don't know how many people actually made it out to the corner today, but we were definitely impeding traffic...HA HA.  I guess everyone was wanting to get a ride in before the rain, so it seems easier to point out who didn't make today's ride than who did:  Shannon, PV, Verm, Marc and Mike Z.  There were actually some other people there who came out with Ron that I didn't know.  Seriously, think Critical Mass.

Anyway, I wasn't sure how I would do today, so I thought I'd play it safe and at least try not to fall off the front group.  Okay, so I was seriously leeching off of others for the most part, but I did take some guilt pulls here and there.

It was cool to see people just going for it on Spyglass too, but I knew doing so will take its toll for the following climb up San Joaquin.  Been there, done that.  Strava has this effect on rides.  Congrats to Vin for acquiring #8 spot.

On San Joaquin, LTJ took the front and I was just able to latch on Galen after he passed me with Mitchell in tow as well.  Rather than make the right turn before NPC, LTJ kept going straight so the rest of us followed.  Everyone else stuck to the route and turned right and got a good jump on us.  I did try to close the gap at NPC by taking the front, and it almost cost me from not being able to hang on subsequently.  This did reduce it down to just LTJ, Galen and me.

We were able to pick up Hiroshi on PCH, but Galen and Todd dropped the hammer and Hiroshi fell off.  I was behind Hiroshi, so when I swung around to try and catch up, it just hurt.  If it weren't for the first light going into CDM that turned red, they'd have been gone.

We also hit the light at Poppy (where we almost caught everyone else), had to ride behind an SUV, a pick up, and an Infiniti M45, going through CDM, and hit the light on Avocado.

Even on PCH, we tried to pick up the pace but then hit the first light after getting on.  Jeremy and Hiroshi were with us, but in our efforts to continue trying to catch up, they fell off and it was just down to the three of us on Back Bay.

I got beat up on Back Bay and after taking a pull just couldn't hang on anymore so I called out to Todd and he jumped on Galen's wheel.  I thought they were going to just get completely away from me, but I saw them at the top of Back Bay and Galen got stuck trying to get across.

LTJ, Galen and I met up at the top of Jamboree and thankfully, I was able to stay together with them through the end from here.  HA HA.  Bummed we didn't get to ride with everyone else, but maybe we'll have the same sized turn-out on Thursday (barring bad weather or bad road conditions).

Thanks for the workout, gents (and all the towing Todd and Galen)!