Strava: http://app.strava.com/rides/9508846
Shannon, Gary and Vin made it for this early morning ride starting from my house, and we were able to roll out just a little after 6:30. With Vin coming, this was definitely unusual as he's more often late than early or on time. I guess my text messages the night before of how he'll likely be left behind if he arrived late worked. I've got to use that more often.
It was a little cold starting out from my house and the wind in the morning was not as mild as I was hoping for. I was thinking though that at some point we hopefully will be able to take advantage of it, but it seemed more often than not it was a nuisance and just made the ride that much tougher. The weather did warm up some, but not enough to cause any unexpected cramping.
We started with a nice warm-up pace, but that lasted only for the first 2 miles. Once we got on Camino Capistrano, the pace started to pick up making me wonder how the hell we're going to sustain this much output for the rest of the ride. Shortly after thinking this, I hear a commotion in the line and wondered what happened. It turned out Shannon had a flat, so we stopped to get this fixed, which was a great way to reset the pace...or so I thought.
We did start again just a little slower but that lasted only until we got to the beach. Everyone was taking a turn, but from my perspective, it seemed like Gary and Vin were pushing the pace up higher and higher each time they got up front. They said the same thing about me, but I just go with the flow. I expect Shannon to do this, but I'm never worried that Shannon can't sustain it.
When we got to the base of hill going up to San Clemente, we started to climb where Shannon had the front. I made my way past Gary and Vin, but was unable (or unwilling) to latch on to Shannon where he ended up getting away from us for a little bit. With Vin's help, we were able to catch up to him by the time we were right next to the freeway. We all regrouped here as well and again the pace picked up.
Now Gary wasn't having his best day, so he was having trouble keeping the pace and eventually would fall off. However, this never stopped him from getting up front once he would catch up and doing what he could to do in the paceline. That's the heart of a true BAM. There were times I wanted to just say stay in the draft, but trying to tell Gary this is about as pointless as asking Shannon to take it easy.
When we went past San Onofre and the state beach, I was trying to keep a good steady pace with Shannon and Vin, but Shannon dropped off to ride with Gary so Vin and I pressed on. I figured I'd go into TT mode and just maintain a nice managed pace while Vin stayed in my draft. Vin eventually couldn't handle all my sweat at some point, so he decided to ride just outside of my draft. However, doing so made it a little tough for him to keep up, so he eventually fell back. I contemplated on seeing how far I could go on my own ahead of the guys, but decided it would be more fun to go through the base with the guys, so I stopped to regroup with the others at Las Pulgas.
As we went through the base, it started out mellow but once we made the right turn, it was fast and furious once again. I would take turns with Shannon mostly passing on the incline since it was hard to pass him otherwise. He'd say I'd charge up the hills, but it was really the only way I could expect to keep with him after. Sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do.
We made it through the base and didn't stop for a break all the way to Ponto Road, the 40 mile mark. Once we regrouped there, we started to make our way back and saw a few riders together with one wearing a Qualcomm kit. Of course, this riled up the group including Gary who started to pick up the pace just after. They did try to jump on, but that didn't last very long. When we arrived at the liquor store in Carlsbad to refuel, we were all alone again..
The took our time at the liquor store to allow everyone to get more fluids and fuel up. This made for a hard time (for me anyway) to warm up again after we took off where I just couldn't manage my breathing right away. I had to just hang on as we made our way to Oceanside where I finally was able to start helping with pulls again.
On the base on the way back, I knew Shannon was going to light it up (I've ridden with him enough times to know how he loves this course) and light it up he did. After climbing up the hill with him after the stop light to turn left, I knew I had to manage my power as best as I can. I took my turns up front, but also stayed in back and let him pull his mad pulls when he was feeling good. Eventually, Shannon's pace got too hot for Vin and he eventually fell off leaving just Shannon and me. We saw a group of riders going the opposite way, which was surprisingly the only large group we saw for the day. One guy had turned around just as we passed as though he was going to try and jump on, but that just didn't happen given our pace. I would take my turns when I could, but only when 1) Shannon would finally slow down and 2) when I knew I could stay up front for more than a second.
As we went up the last hill just before the gate, Shannon kicked it up a notch and I was just off his draft as we approached the gate. I remembered at this point I was suppose to wait for Vin to make sure he made the correct turns since he was unfamiliar with the route, so I figured this would be as good an excuse as any to drop off from Shannon completely. Thus, at the turn on Las Pulgas to go back onto the bike trail, I waited there to make sure Vin found his way out. Shannon went ahead since he had to take a bio break. Once I saw Vin exiting the gate with Gary, I went ahead and started to make my past some of the riders who had passed me as I waited. It was just after going under the 5 freeway that I ran into Shannon who was waiting for all of us there.
Once we regrouped, we started to chase down some of the riders who had passed us again and all fell behind Shannon who reeled them in. On the rise before the opening in the gate, I started to ascend and broke away from everyone not realizing that our guys hadn't followed me. I slowed up a bit after the crest and some others started coming up and eventually made their way up to me. One guy had gone through the fence opening ahead of me, so I jumped on his rear wheel to see if he was willing to do any work. He checked up right after, so I went around him and waited for the others to latch on. Once they did, I started to pick up the pace again.
Now two guys with the same kit started to pass me where I thought "cool, someone to ride with." Shannon and Vin started to get in the rotation also, and after a while, it was just us 3 doing most of the work. We kept the pace up pretty good where only one guy was able to hang on for a bit all the way past the power plant. He was sitting in our draft for the most part, but had gotten pushed up to the front where after a 2 second pull or so, he rolled off and just didn't have enough to hang on after almost taking Vin with him.
We kept going and made our way out of Trestles and decided to wait and make sure Gary was okay. Once Gary came, he indicated he didn't want us to wait on him any longer as he passed us, so the three of us went on from there.
It was a little busy going through downtown San Clemente, but once we made our way to the bike trail at the base of the hill, Shannon and I started working together again keeping the pace up. We pretty much did so all the way to my house, and despite the high pace we were going, Vin managed to stay in the draft and keep up the whole time which Shannon and I bought thought was impressive.
At the end of the ride, we kept a move average of over 20 mph, which was great considering the winds that never seemed to cooperate. We had a beer or two at my house for some post ride refreshments, but neither Gary nor Shannon were able to go to Vin's for some lunch he wanted to prepare for us. Lisa and I made our way there after, and I gotta tell ya, the boy can cook. We're going to have to take him up on his offer to cook for us after a ride more often.
Thanks for the workout, gents.
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