Lunch Ride - Portola OAB + Jamboree

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/rides/10673353

Attendees:  Vince, Shannon, Adrian, Hiroshi, Jaffe and almost Mitchell ('amateur' mechanical before the start - bummer)

With all the hill training we've been doing leading up to last weekend, I thought it would be a good idea to get some fast flat training in for a change.  The route was the dreaded Portola out and back, and I say dreaded because despite it's fairly low elevation gain for the ride, the sustained intensity seems to scare people away.  With today's winds, that may have been the wiser choice to make.

For the most part, Shannon, Adrian, Vince and I rotated throughout the ride to keep the pace up while Jaffe and Hiroshi hung on for dear life.  Going out was definitely tough as we made our way to Harvard, and I could barely hang on at some points.  Have I mentioned I hate not warming up?

When we arrived at the light to cross Barranca onto Harvard, Hiroshi was just barely hanging on but Jaffe ended up cross the street to regroup with us where we were all together again.  Once we took off, I think Shannon led first and kept us at a good pace, but as we approached one of the lights, Vince took the opportunity to play rabbit and break away.  Once the light turned green, the chase was on.

I think Hiroshi and Jaffe even led the charge originally but I got up front to help close the gap once on the bike trail again.  From here, the rotations came back to just Adrian, Vince, Shannon and me again.  It was tough to hang on and everyone kept trying to catch their breath before jumping up front again to take a pull.

As we neared where the trail starts to pitch up heading to Portola, Vince turned it on and started to break away.  I saw him go by me and knew his intentions, but I was fine with our pace.  I slowly tried to close the gap on Vince as we climbed, but then Adrian came out of nowhere and was moving at a pretty good pace looking strong.  I was certain he'd catch Vince but without any warning or signs, POP...not as in a tire but as in Adrian detonating again.  HA HA.  I got by him, but was just a few feet behind Vince as he reached the top.

I thought we may be regrouping, but Vince must have missed that memo and kept going.  He did, however, do a rolling regroup where he soft pedaled until Shannon caught him with me just off the back   Adrian came by though where I was able to jump on and we were able to latch on to the two guys ahead and start the rotations again. 

At this point, the winds seemed to be real tough and everyone seemed to be getting as low as they can to keep the pace up while up front.  We all kept pushing through the wind as we got back on Harvard, and still stayed together once we were back on the bike trail after Barranca. 

The four of us were taking turns still as we were on the bike trail and Hiroshi ended up falling off early on.  The winds were brutal and eventually also took its toll on Adrian also.  We were struggling to keep a 21-22 mph average with just the 3 of us, but we rotated pretty well despite.  Once we got beside University, I eventually jumped to the front and hoped to keep the pace up all the way to California.  However, I was relieved by Shannon with Vince in tow some time after Mesa Road.  I was thinking of hollering out that we should just go up California, but I didn't have enough lungs in my air to do so.  HA HA

After we got past California, Vince got to the front and dropped the hammer reaching speeds in the 24-25 mph range where I just hung on for my life hoping he didn't expect me to jump ahead and keep this same pace.  When we looked back, Shannon was no longer on so maybe we held him out too long on some of his pulls.  It's hard to pass this guy when he gets up front, so....

The three of us regrouped at the light before the climb up Jamboree.  Once we started climbing, Vince got up front but I slowly made my way to him and started to pass.  He got behind me after and at some pointed made his way past me again where I jumped behind him.  As his pace started to drop a little, we exchanged one last time and made it up to Bison together. 

After regrouping on Bison, Shannon, Vince and I rode down back to BRCM without any shennanigans.  They may have thought otherwise since I stood up to pedal the rest of the ride after going over the 73, but that was just to keep the average up and blow out the rest of  what I had. 

Great training today, gents!  Glad it's over.