Strava (Vince's since my Garmin turned off): http://app.strava.com/rides/11986123
Attendees: PV, Vince, Adrian, Jeremy, Vin, Jaffe, Marc, Hiroshi and Mitchell
I was a little pre-occupied during today's ride given that I found out this morning one of the guys who used to work on my team passed away. He had been hospitalized from a tumor they found in his brain and although they removed it where it appeared he would recover, he ended up having more complications and wasn't able to survive them. It's hard to think about riding and having fun when something like this happens, but I did what I could to get some training in with these maniacs.
For the most part, I stayed in the back and just hung on while they were moving pretty fast through Anteater and subsequently the rise up on Shady heading towards Sunnyhill (Strava confirms this based on movement in top 10 placements). PV, Adrian, Vince, Jeremy and I think even Mitchell were working together and doing a great job keeping the pace elevated. Vin was in my draft, but he broke me off even while I was just maintaining my own pace behind the other guys. Jaffe, you're welcome for the pick-up. :)
I continued to hang in the back as we got on Turtle Rock and watched as we started to climb how Jaffe launched the first attack. Jeremy chased him down and Vince did the same and caught up to Jeremy. Both were about ready to bypass Starcrest, but we called out to them just as we were making the right onto this climb.
PV started ahead of us and Jeremy and Vince made their way past me up to PV after making a u-turn on Turtle Rock. I got into a good rhythm and made my way past all of them when it got steeper, but Vince jumped on and stuck behind me launching an attack near the the top. BAM!
We kept going down Ridgeline back onto Turtle Rock where PV caught me, and the two of us caught Vince on the rise on Shady heading toward the bike trail opening. PV led us all the way down it. As the 3 of us got caught at the light, Jeremy and Mitchell caught up to us there.
When we got on Bonita Canyon and subsequently NPC, Jeremy, PV and Vince started to charge up and I wasn't having any of it. I stayed behind and worked with Mitchell up NPC, but by the time we rounded San Joaquin, the 3 of them ahead of us were no longer in sight. Mitchell and I continued working together on the horseshoe, and down San Joaquin.
I was up front as we got to Spyglass and after rounding, I could see the 3 guys ahead of me so I started charging up the hill. Mitchell had fallen off, but had almost caught me just at the little false flat in the middle. As it pitched up again though, he fell off and I was hoping to charge down the other side and catch the other guys. However, when I got there, the light was red and they were gone.
Mitchell had caught me at the light (which seemed to take forever) and we worked together on San Miguel hitting 1-2 more lights on there before getting back on San Joaquin and McArthur. Mitchell had been doing great to keep the pace up with me, but I LOVE that section so I jumped to the front and started hauling towards Ford/Bonita Canyon. I could see the light was red and the 3 guys stopped there, so I was really working hard to make the light. I had a ways to go when it turned green, but I was able to get through it where Mitchell eventually fell off my draft.
The 3 guys were just ahead of me as I rounded Bison and I almost got caught at the first light while they were coming up on the light before going over the 73. They ended up going through it, so once I got to go, I started sprinting where I watched them get caught on the last light on the overpass. The light turned green and as they took off, I was already in full stride where I passed them and pulled a Vince calling them bitches (a term of endearment in our group) as I did. I think PV got a kick out of it.
Thanks for the training today, gents!
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