Strava: http://app.strava.com/activities/29359301
Attendees: Shannon, Adrian and me
Weather: Very cold at the start (~43 degrees and averaged for the ride 55 per Garmin). Very clear but windy on the way back.
It's been awhile since I've trained on the weekends with the crew, so it was nice to be out with Adrian and Shannon again for a longish ride. The premise behind this training ride was to get some long miles in on the TT bars in preparation for the Stagecoach in January. I had Eddie's bike, Adrian had his aero bars installed, and Shannon had his Trek fully modded as a TT with the bar shifters on the aeros and brakes setup accordingly.
When we started out, I led us out to the bike trail by the wash that goes down to Doheny. I was trying to set up a pace at a power level that I think had us moving at a good clip but was sustainable for a good distance. Once we started rotating, Adrian pushed ahead and started to just go for it. I didn't respond right away, but Shannon pushed up too and both of them had a good gap on me early on. Our pace led to us getting top 10 in the segment that rode down to the beach. When we got to Doheny, I caught up and rode by asking whether they realized we were doing an 80 miler today. HAHA.
We still kept a decent pace through the parking lot and out to the bike lane on El Camino Real (aka the Doheny drag strip), but at that point the rotations were mostly between Shannon and I. Adrian started not to feel as good so he opted to stay in the draft for most of the ride just to be able to stay with us. No worries.
On the TT bikes, our pace, while elevated, was a lot less erratic and we were able to stay together easier. This, however, led to a few guys latching on and riding with us mostly for the free tow. No one wanted to rotate at all. When they would push to the front, it seemed more to try a breakaway than anything else. However, both times that happened, they would come around Shannon to try and break away, but I was there each time to show them the error of their ways.
On the 2nd attempt, there were actually three guys who were in our paceline and they all held Shannon out for some time. Shannon, pulling the way he does, did manage to cause one to drop and the other to not want any after he slowed up, but at his pace, this also caused Adrian to drop off some but not too far off. We were all able to regroup at the top of the Vandegrift climb just before the McDonald's.
We took an early break at the Oceanside gas station to get Adrian some Tums for his upset stomach, and left shortly after down the coast. As always, it's never much fun riding through downtown Oceanside, and at one point, a car had pulled ahead and caused me to slow down and have to work my way back up to Shannon and Adrian. However, on the TT bike, it was a little easier to do so.
Shannon and I had been exchanging pulls and just making our way past everyone in our path all the way to Ponto Road (the 40 mile turnaround point). On our way back, we did opt to stop one more time at the liquor store we normally stop at just to prepare for the rest of the ride home. This was actually my planned stop, so I wanted to make sure we had enough fluids for the rest of the ride back. We only refilled a little in Oceanside, so....
On our way back, we definitely could feel some headwind where we knew we would be working to make good time back. Being in the TT position was definitely helpful in this regard, so I think we still maintained a pretty good pace despite the winds. Of course, downtown Oceanside was busier by this time, so we did have to stop a lot through there. However, once we got on base, it was straight pedaling from there.
Adrian was feeling a little better, so he took a couple pulls on the base, but Shannon and I did most of the work given the pace we were holding. We held a good pace all the way to the San Onofre State Beach parking lot, but once we got past the fence, the other guys were starting to feel it from the ride and slowed up for a little bit. I was interested in keeping the pace up, and while I wanted to regroup and have everyone latch on, I wasn't sure they were both up for it at the time. I was interested in still trying to manage my output and pace, so I ended up going ahead on my own.
While I rode through the state beach, I was feeling good and felt like I could hold the pace I was holding for a good distance. However, I started feeling some serious discomfort in the chamois area, so I tried shifting around the seat to feel better. It didn't work, so as I neared the entrance to the state beach, I looked back and saw Shannon and Adrian making their way up to me. I took the opportunity to check up and give my taint a rest, but once Shannon and Adrian drew near, I was able to get back on it and led them all the way to Trestles.
Shannon started exchanging with me up front again once we got to the road next to the freeway that headed back toward El Camino Real. We made our way to San Clemente and after going through downtown, there was one guy we caught at one of the lights who appeared wanted to show us how fast he was. Once we got on the downhill, he took off so I gave chase and catching him at the bottom. I thought he was going to ride with us after that since he said he was heading back to Irvine, but we popped him off on the first protected bike lane.
When we got to the 2nd protected bike lane that led to Capo beach, we were still reeling people in ahead of us and Shannon and I kept pushing through all the way to the parking lot. We tried to keep the pace up in the parking lot, but cars, kids on bikes, etc., made that pretty much impossible.
Once on the bike trail that heads back up the wash from Doheny, we picked up the pace again. Shannon and I were really pushing here and it was at this point that Adrian finally pulled a Roberto Duran stating "no mas." After yelling out to him to let him know where to turn, Shannon and I kept going. We probably could have gotten that segment had it not been for one idiot who caused both of us to check up since he was on his TT bike riding straight toward us on our lane. Shannon actually had to yell out to him to get him to switch back to his lane, but the damage was done to our efforts timewise. I was going to push up for a final pull, but didn't because of having had to check up. Shannon still got #2 though with an average of 26.4 mph for the 1.5 miles. Nice work!
Since Adrian didn't know his way back, I ended up waiting for him while Shannon road back to my house. Adrian was pretty spent and couldn't manage to stay in the draft any longer at this point, so we moderately made our way back to my house as a result.
Overall, it was a great training ride with the two, but we talked about how more people need to start training up for January where more people would have made it even more intense. There's always next week. Thank, Shannon and Adrian!
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