Vince sent out an invite last night to ride this morning and mentioned that the route is TBD but we were going to do hills. Given my need to continue training for hills as a last ditch effort to not fall off too far in Santa Barbara for the KOM team challenge, I was compelled to accept. Of course, upon arriving at the Bldg 11 gym, Vince mentioned that the plan was to do the full Monte for the Puke route. This meant extra credit both times and even a Summit finale. A 2500 ft 23 mile morning trainer? Great.
We did see both Todd and Galen in the spin room and in typical BAM fashion, we mocked them for not joining us in the ride. However, once the door was closed, Vince and I both agreed that we were glad neither of them were coming out. HAHA.
It was nice to do a warm-up pace through Anteater, and Vince and I were trading pulls early on to further help each other warm up. This continued up NPC all the way to the top, so it was nice that we rode together the whole time.
Once we got on Ridge Park though, Vince had gotten a little gap on me, but I closed in and passed him gapping him as well. This lasted until the last part of the climb before the stop sign where Vince started to close back in on me and eventually passed me before we got to the stop sign. I stayed with him as we went over the top headed to the El Moro cul-de-sac, but he started to gap me and just never stopped. By the time I turned around and got over the top to head onto Vista, Vince was no longer in sight. He was just gone. Nice.
I got caught for a little at the bottom of Vista, but going onto NPC and Pelican, I had hoped to catch a glimpse of him, but no such luck. I figured with me looking down to make sure I was on the small chainring every so often, even with the compact crank, he would continue to gap me and he did.
I went on to NPC and Vista, and still no sight of Vince. It took until I was headed toward the cul-de-sac again for me to see him going the opposite way. This also occurred as I climbed up Summit where I could see him on the opposite side of the road descending. That was pretty much it. Vince ended up going back to work via Anteater, whereas I went onto Bonita Canyon to McArthur since we never really discussed how the route was supposed to end. Either way, we both got over 2400 feet of climbing in for a morning ride, and my stomach was really jacked by the time I got back. The puke route remained true to its name.
Guys, you have to know Vince like I know him where if he continues at this rate, he will once again be scary on the hills. Strava tells no lies, and while his times from 2011 were better than this year, he seems like he's on his way back. He did do a track workout yesterday, so had he been more rested, I'd have been riding alone a lot sooner I'm sure. Good job, Vince!
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