Lunch Ride - Return of the Irishman

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/activities/42372230

Attendees:  Shannon, Vince, Vin, Adrian, Jeremy, Mitchell, Jaffe, Hiroshi, Jaffe, Paul B. and me.

So I'm sitting in the locker getting change and lo and behold, the great Shannon McGee walked into the locker room and has opted come out of his road bike hiatus and join us once again.  Sweet!  The irony here is as we're all happy to see him back, that will probably change soon after due to the pain he tends to dole out.  In any case, welcome back, bud!

Paul B. also opted to join us as he does so on occasion.  Always a pleasure to have more people come out to the rides.  With today's turnout of 11, it was definitely a good day to represent.

Unfortunately, my head just wasn't in the game today and I was even uncertain as to whether I would be riding.  I had already mentioned to Shannon how I didn't plan to do much/any work today given I just wanted to sit in the back and deal with my "anxiety" issues.  The absence of clarity in my mind definitely didn't want me to lead others into a dangerous situation that I would otherwise be more aware of given normal circumstances.  I know this probably bothered some that I wasn't doing my share of the work, but I did do some gap closing when I could.  That's better than nothing, right?

Anyway, back to the ride....

Despite the numbers today, the group stayed together for the most part throughout the ride.  On Back Bay, everyone was doing their share of the work (except me).  there were a couple instances where some had fallen off the paceline, but I did pull a few guys back in when I could.

While no one sprinted to the San Joaquin sprint point, Vince, Shannon and Adrian did break away some for the final stretch.  Vince even started to gap, but he missed the turn to the trailer park bike trail and had to fall back in line with the rest of us shmucks.

On the climb up Jamboree, Vince was holding a good pace going up when Adrian came by and decided he wanted to show off his recent training (he did 90 miles last week after all, which I think he even mentioned to people in passing cars who were willing to listen.  I helped to close the gap on him, but once we got to the top I relegated myself back to the end of the line.

The ride through CDM was pretty uneventful and everyone stayed together throughout.  Once we got on PCH again though, Vince, Shannon, Adrian and Mitchell started to gap the others.  I waited for others to see if they can close it, but I eventually offered to help.   We never got on to the rear wheel of the pack ahead of us, but we got close enough.

On the NPC climb, Hiroshi led everyone up and was doing great to keep the pace.  When we got on Pelican, I think Shannon, Mitchell and Vince started to gap the rest of us.  I opted to try and help close the gap and took the front with others (Jeremy and Hiroshi or Vin?) just behind me.  As we started going up the last rise, Adrian pulled a Verm and passed me with bad intentions (how do I know?  He said "F'in pansies" as he passed).  We all know how this ends though, right folks?  That's right...kabooom!  I kept my pace steady and made my way past him.  I think Shannon heard me coming though, so he turned it up and started to pull away from the rest of us.  He's baaaaacck!

We all regrouped after the light on NPC, and once we got going again, Vince Shannon and Adrian took off down the other side.  Since no one seemed too interested in closing, I gave chase slowly closing but running out of juice by the time I got to the 73 underpass.  My handy dandy wingman Mitchell came around at that point, and took over for the chase.  We all were able to regroup at the light before Bonita Canyon.

On Bonita Canyon, I was still in draft mode but everyone was doing well to keep the pace up.  I decided since we were close to finishing that I'd try to make my way to the front, but that idea was eventually squashed at one of the lights.

Once we got onto Ford, however, I offered Shannon (and whoever else willing to latch on) a wheel to draft behind for the climb up the condo.  Shannon was hesitant at first, but eventually took my wheel.  We caught the green at the intersection making for an ideal turn in onto Jamboree, but as I started climbing I think I hit a stick and something else where both flew up but thankfully didn't make me crash or damage my bike.  This didn't slow the pace down though, and we just kept on going.  As we started to near the crest, I hear Shannon making his move to pass with authority as he stayed off the seat doing so, and fortunately I was just able to latch on as he passed.  While we didn't PR the climb, we did pretty good nonetheless especially considering the traffic at the Bison intersection.

After regrouping at the light on McArthur, I was watching to see who would make a sprint out of it.  Sure enough, Vin launched the intial assault and while it looked like the 2nd light would be a good place to catch him, it turned greeen again where it didn't seem to slow him down much.  Vince, Adrian and I started to give chase but I knew I didn't have the legs to catch Vin.  Adrian had other ideas though and after passing me made his way up to Vin and turned into California ahead of him.  Nice work!  Don't let it get to your head though, Adrian, as you still have a LOOOONNNNGGGG way to go.  AHA

Great training ride today, gents.  I'll hopefully be back in good spirits for Thursday's ride.  I just need to take a big bite of #5 before then.  Thanks!