Lunch Ride - BB PCH CDM NPC San Joaq Horseshoe BB CA

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/rides/7303758

It was a pretty good sized group that came out today with Shannon, Gary, Vince, Mitchell, Jeremy, Vin, Seon, Hiroshi and Marc making it out.  We saw Todd in the locker room and thought he may grace us with his presence, but he was a little under the weather and opted to spin instead.  A blessing?  HA HA

While I had the route planned originally to go straight to Bonita Canyon from NPC and finish with Jamboree > University > CA.  S-Gary wanted to get some San Joaquin and/or Horseshoe action, so we re-routed to do so along with going all the way down to Back Bay and head to CA from there.  This added 3 miles to the route, but who's counting?

S-Gary led us out originally on the bike trail in typical fashion, so the pace was high from the start.  Vince and I hung out at the back for a bit to warm up, but Vince pushed up behind Hiroshi toward the front near the Back Bay Entrance and I followed.  Vince went around Hiroshi on the down, and I waited to see Hiroshi push up and latch on as Shannon, Gary and Vince started to pull away.  Once I realized he wasn't going to (probably having ran yesterday and recovering), I swung out and gave chase to the 3 barely latching on once I closed the sizable gap.  From there, the 4 of us broke away from everyone else and had some good rotations heading out to the other gate.  It was only near the end of Back Bay that the pace got to Gary, but he was just behind us as the three of us made our way to Bayside.

There, everyone else caught us at the light to go onto PCH so we all went up the hill toward Jamboree together.  Shannon, Vince and Gary had started to gap going up PCH but I was able to close and pull the other guys behind me up to the group.  I relieved Vince once I could, and a few us were rotating all the way to Avocado.

Everyone was pretty much together when we went through CDM, but on Ocean, Shannon started to pull away.  Vin, Jaffe and Mitchell didn't seem to eager to close the gap and rightfully so.  I pulled up and didn't want to blow up trying to catch him but also didn't let him pull away much more.  Once we got on Poppy, however, Shannon had passed a slow moving car that all of a sudden decide to slow down and even stop making it dangerous to pass.  Vince had gotten around on the sidewalk, but most of us were forced to pass carefully once able to do so.

Shannon was a pretty good distance ahead once we got on PCH, but Vince was closer as he must have realized it would not be fun trying to catch up to Shannon.  Mitchell took the initial pull on PCH, but I took over and was subsequently relieved by Vince as we made our way to NPC.

Going up NPC, everyone passed me initially and I thought, oh boy, here we go again.  However, after standing on the pedals, I was able to stay with the trailing group for a while and eventually pass them with only Shannon, Mitchell and Gary ahead of me.  

Shannon eventually broke away, but I decided to not overcook it and stayed with Mitchell and Gary for a bit.  Gary finally slowed after a bit and I held Mitchell out for a bit until I can recover more from closing from behind them.  Once I recovered, I got by Mitchell and thought he and Gary were latched on behind me.  However, after a few look backs, I realized they weren't anymore but not too far behind. 

I decided if I can't climb NPC with any tenacity, this weekend's ride is going to suck, so I stuck it out all the way to the top ahead of the others.  Fortunately for me, Shannon got caught at the Ridge Park light and I was able to come up on him and make the left together for San Joaquin.  Looking back, however, there was a group of about 4-5 guys but they just weren't close enough to make the light with us. 

Shannon and I got on the Horseshoe and worked together pretty well as we made our way around.  At the very end, I almost fell off but hung on just behind him as we got back on San Joaquin.  I started trading pulls with him, but his pace was difficult just to be able to stay with him.  Thankfully, we had a short break to get across McArthur, and I was able to recover enough just to be able to not get dropped as we headed back to Back Bay.  I almost did though.

We got stopped at the light on Jamboree, and looking back, we didn't see anyone so Shannon suggested we could take it easy.  The problem with this is Shannon's definition of easy differs from mine.  I think we were still hitting the 30s on Back Bay, but there were some good sections of tail wind that helped. 

We still didn't slow up as we headed toward University and Shannon lit it up with me in tow as we headed to California.  I tried to pass and offer relief, but he passed me shortly after since I needed some serious recovery time.  It was his draft that helped me move up and actually get top 10 on Strava (something I hadn't been doing for some time now).  Thanks!

We had some rest before heading up California, and hitting the first light also helped.  I went ahead and worked on my standing climb from there and although not record breaking, it was a decent pace.  

Thanks for the workout today, gents!  Take it easy on us on Thursday please.  I'll be in the back and saving it for Saturday.