2013 Tour De Palm Springs - The Weekend

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/activities/40492296

What an incredible weekend!  Who would have thought the ride would have been what it was given the weather conditions from the day before?  There was rain, hail, heavy winds and snow on the way out and temperatures were down in the 40s when we arrived to pick up our wristbands.  Nevertheless, it was probably one of the best outings with the team ever.

Rather than going out the night before, riding a century and going home on the same day, Todd and Vin were both in on making a complete weekend of it.  What made it even better was that our significant others (Lisa, Heather and Pam) were also up for coming along and had signed up for the 25 mile ride as well.  Having them there definitely made it a lot more interesting, and considering that Palm Springs is known for their "alternative lifestyle" predominance, staying a weekend with the boys may have been a little awkward.

We stayed at the Saguaro hotel, which from the outside may be questionable in terms of the patrons they cater to, but it was a great choice based on the big rooms, amenities, price, and location.  Thanks to Vin for finding it for us.  Even Todd thought it was a great place and unlike his original expectations, the colorful decor did not give him the headache he feared originally.  The only thing we could do without was the marching band that appeared to have been staying above our rooms.

Having just raced last month in Ocotillo, Todd set the premise that we would not doing a race pace this year.  He wanted to have fun and enjoy the weekend and company, so this meant we were drinking even the night before.  We started off with some beers at the hotel, and continued on at the restaurant (Nina's Pita and Pizza) with Vin accepting the role of designated driver.   Yelp definitely screwed us over with the 4.5 star rating for the restaurant, but with good company we were able to overcome it...that and the Peronis.   By the way, we would have met up with Shawn, who came out to do the 55 miler, but we just didn't get out soon enough with the beers flowing in the rooms.  Sorry, Shawn!

Had I known it would have been a sub-40 start, I definitely would have brought more clothes (or shall I say have Lisa pack more clothes for me).   I still managed to have my legs and arms covered along with inserts I planned to wear at night underneath my shorty gloves, but my ears were freezing.  Todd seemed to have dressed accordingly, but Vin came out with no base layer and shorts only.  He was hating it early on for sure.

We were staying about 3 miles from the start when we left at 6:30 a.m., so we had to ride there making for a good way to warm up early on.  When we arrived close to the start, we didn't bother listening to the announcements since there were already people rolling.  We just got on E. Palm Canyon and joined the masses.

In typical BAM fashion, our supposed "non-race" pace had us passing people like crazy.  We saw Team Velosport rocking their new RockForm kits where I said hi to Sol as we passed.  We also saw a few Descenders riding together, but there were no greetings exchanged when we passed by them.  Hmm....

Todd was doing most of the leading, of course, so we let him set the pace while Vin and I basically hung on.  When we made the left into the headwind on Garnet, it was reminiscent of last year where it was tough to cut through.  It was worse last year, but it was no walk in the park this year.  There was one group of guys who passed us on that section, and while we thought we would jump on, the guy in the back wearing a kit indicating he was a 2012 NCA champion made us think twice as to whether it would be worth it.  I think considering all the beers we had the night before, it was a good call that we didn't.

When we started climbing up after the bridge, the wind continued to be a struggle and at one point, we were all essentially riding at an 80 degree angle leaning our shoulder into the wind or risk being blown across the road.  We were climbing at a pretty good pace, so we still couldn't get any takers to latch on and come with us.

As we neared the right turn, one thing the organizers did right this year is get rid of that ridiculous SAG that used to have riders strewn across the road making for a hazardous situation.  Thus, we were able to hit that downhill with some momentum.  When Todd rounded the turn, he was up off his seat hammering it breaking away from Vin and I who were certain Todd said we would take it easy.  Nonetheless, once we realized Todd was going for it, we both took off as well.   We were all pretty close by the time we got to the bottom. 

We still couldn't find any takers on the downhill, but after making the right turn to head towards the residential area, we did get in a group who was moving at a pretty good clip for that stretch.  We thought that the group would stay together for a while, but as soon as we started climbing, that group thinned out to just 4...Todd, Vin, me and one other guy.

We descended down a following hill with Todd laying it down again and me behind him.  Vin was off the back a little as was the case on the first hill, so we didn't think anything of it.  It turned out, however, that he had gotten a flat with his tire blowing out where we wouldn't see him anymore until after the ride.  He did manage to get it fixed with the old dollar trick to cover the hole, and fortunately was able to make it back and still at a good clip.  We waited for him at the 50 and texted him after seeing his text letting us know about his tire situation, but we were never able to connect to find out if he was going on or getting a ride back from a roving SAG.

Todd and I were with the one guy who climbed with us, but that guy took off through a red light while we waited to cross safely.  We were able to pick him up after, and actually picked up a pretty good sized group as we made our way to the 50 with both of us taking turns to keep the pace up.  While we had several people trailing us at that point, there weren't any who were too willing to push up to the front.  There were some "attack" like passes by a couple guys near the bottom, but we would barely start to chase them down when they would check up right away making us wonder if they were just poor rotation attempts instead.  By the time we got to the 50 mile SAG, we were at a 22 mph average.  Ummm...so much for non-race pace. 

After waiting for Vin at the 50 SAG and not seeing he was coming, we rolled off together and without anyone with us.  We did pick up some riders early on, but I guess it wasn't enough for Todd to ride with them.  While I sat content with the group, one guy opted to try and break off so Todd went with him and they started to pull away from us pretty fast.  I had just rotated toward the back, so I was thinking I'll let the rest of the guys work to reel them in since we had the numbers to do so.  As I watched Todd and the other guy continue to pull away, however, I realized this group was just not going to get it done.  I came around from the back and as I was passing the front guys, I asked them to pick it up and latch on behind me.  After passing them, however, none of them responded at all so I continued to pull away hoping that at some point, I'll run into Todd.

I was moving at a pretty decent clip on my own passing other riders with no one latching on to help, but then I saw a group of guys coming up behind me.  When I realized they were reeling me in, I decided it would be better to just latch on.  It turns out the guy up front was on a TT bike, and he was pretty strong where the 5-6 guys behind him just held him out up front the whole time.  When I latched on, that made for 6-7.  HA HA.  On his own, however, he did manage to reel in Todd and the other guy just as we neared the 75 mile SAG.  Of course, I thanked him for the strong pull and was glad I was up with Todd again.

Todd and I took a quick stop at the 75 mile SAG for a refill, and we were off.  There was some climbing to be done after that SAG, so the group that latched on behind us dwindled down to just one other guy.  It was a beautiful neighborhood we rode through, but it was definitely not well-marked.  It was hard to keep a real strong pace through it as we kept checking up looking for the arrow markers.  When we finally arrived at one arrow marker, it pointed to go back toward the same direction from which we came.  The 3rd guy who was with us was sure it was the right way, so he opted then to just take off.  Todd and I timidly rode on but realized it couldn't possibly be the right way.  As we headed back to the arrow, someone was fixing it as it had fallen pointing to the right instead of going straight.  That cost us some time and an additional 2 miles of travel.

As we rode on, we got into a pretty good group and were moving at a pretty good clip.  When we thought they would slow, however, we'd get back up to the front to bring the pace up.  There were some breakaways that would occur, but we were always able to pull the breakaway group back in.  That was fun.  Despite all the traffic with the other riders from the shorter distances as is historically the case with this ride, we still managed to get to the finish with a 21 mph average...best pace for me to date. 

We were expecting the ladies to be finished, but they were still working to get back once we arrived.  Despite finishing after us, they opted to pick us up some lunch from across the hotel before coming back.  How awesome was that?  Vin, Todd and I were already in the pool area showered and downing some beers, so they joined us for the post ride celebration.  Hitting the hot tub and some good Mexican food after was the topper.

A great ride with a great team made for a great weekend event for sure.  I don't know why we don't do more rides like this.  I'm hoping next year, we'll have even more out hear representing both BAM and LOB (Ladies of BAM).  Thanks for making it out, all!