Lunch Ride - Turtle Rock Shady Ridgeline Summit Condo Loop

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/activities/27727772

When you think of the word dry, a few things may come to mind:  a martini, what my jersey is NOT after a ride, or Jaffe's and Vin's bike chains.  However, this would be how I would describe today's weather.  My eyes are bloodshot and my face feels like it's been sitting in front of a hairdryer for a few hours.  The temperature wasn't too bad otherwise, but man my eyes hurt.

It's been since the Santa Barbara Century when I last rode with Shannon, so it was nice to be out with the Irishman again today.  Todd, Adrian, Vin and Hiroshi also came out, but Hiroshi came out of nowhere on Shady given he didn't start with us.  We saw Jaffe in the locker room, but he won't be on a bike probably until next year given he's waiting for his R5 to arrive.  Nice choice!

The pace of the group was pretty fast going out, and I had a little trouble being able to hang on right away with Todd and Shannon pushing the pace early on.  Once we made the left turn onto Culver, I was dropped like a bad habit by everyone.  I tried not to panic when I saw them pulling away, but they literally went up and over the crest at over a mph faster than what I was doing.  I think Adrian was responsible for getting that started again, and with Todd and Shannon there...forgetaboutit!

I was still off the back on Campus and the beginning of Turtle Rock, but I saw Adrian pop off the other three during the climb.  I made my way up to him, and we began exchanging pulls all the way up to the first bridge on the Shady bike trail.  Once it pitched up at that point, he fell off.

I saw a red jersey ahead of me, and eventually made my way up to him by the 2nd bridge where it was Hiroshi.  He jumped on for a bit, but also fell off on the last part of the rise before the crest at the top.  Thus, I was on my own at this point.

I couldn't even see where Todd, Shannon and Vin were as I made my way down to the bike trail by the 405.  However, after it rounded to University, I did catch a glimpse of Vin at that point.  He was still a good distance away though, so I just worked on trying to close the gap once I got on Ridgeline.

I did see Todd and Shannon climbing up for a bit, but lost them after they made their way past where it pitches up the first time.  I was starting to close on Vin and was hoping to get up to his wheel before the stop sign, but I ran out of steam and just came in a little behind him to an awaiting Shannon and Todd at the regroup point on Turtle Rock.

Adrian had told me to not have us wait for him, so once I got there, I let the others know and we were off again.  Todd's been pushing the pace the whole time, and once again jumped to the front and had a little gap in front of the rest of us.  Even as we climbed the Shady rise, Todd was still trying to break us off, so I decided to close the gap and then take a turn with him.  When he went to pass me for his turn, no one was behind him, so he and I mixed it up for the sprint to the bike trail.  I wasn't sure he was going to go for it at the end, but I did bring the pace up just before thinking it would be enough to deter him.  It wasn't, and sure enough he passed me just before we crossed the bike trail.

We did get the light on Bonita canyon ahead of the others, and Vin jumped on the curb to try and join us as we made our way up Turtle Ridge and eventually Summit.  I tried to stay on Todd's wheel as we climbed, and managed to do so for about half way up, but he snapped me off at that point and that was that.

I got to the top and saw the others climbing behind us as I descended, and I ran into Todd and the light on Turtle Ridge just before Bonita Canyon where we agreed to regroup again there with Vin and Shannon.  Once we got going, Todd took off again and I had to work just to pull us back onto his wheel.  Now I should have just sat there for a bit to let him work, but I opted to be a team player and rotate up front.  Shannon and Vin also were team players and rotated in as well.

Once we got across McArthur, Shannon and Todd were a little bit ahead, but Vin and I caught up to them where I tried desperately to try and catch my breath to prepare for the condo.  What sucked about it was that there was a car sitting at the corner as we approached where we didn't really get to have too much momentum going onto it, but se la vie.  Shannon had a good pace going up, and Todd kicked it up a notch passing him.  I found a pretty decent rhythm also which allowed me to eventually catch Todd.  Now the "smart" thing to do at that point was just wait a bit and make a move later since he's been crushing it everywhere else, but I opted to pass since I had momentum.  I wasn't sure if he was behind me after I did, but I continued to try and bring the pace up to finish strong and hopefully deter him from passing here.  Nope...he did so there too.  Nice.

The 4 of us were able to regroup at McArthur, and I thought to myself I just can't let Todd have everything today.  I just can't.  When the light turned green, he took off and I was watching the lights trying to make sure I didn't waste any effort unnecessarily.  Vin got ahead of me and I started pacing him while Todd was ahead of us.  Once I saw we were a go for the 2nd light over the 73, I busted a sprint.  Now although I know this is not Todd's strength, I still expected that he may jump on after I passed him.  Thus, I probably hammered much longer than I needed to, but I wasn't falling for it a 3rd time today.  :)

Great training today, gents.  Thanks for coming out.  By the way, did I mention it was dry out there today?