Strava: http://app.strava.com/activities/41770443
Attendees: Vin, Todd, Adrian, Jaffe, Hiroshi, Mitchell and Jeremy
It's been awhile since we've done a rabbit chase-type ride, but it seems like a great way to fire up people for some intense training. Volunteers to be the rabbit are far and few, however, so once again I opted to be the hunted. I was hoping to get a 3 minute head start since there is a decent climb on the route (NPC), but after some "negotiations" I only took 2. Todd only wanted to give me 1, so we met in the middle. They caught me with a 2 minute head start in the past on a Portola OAB ride, so I was thinking it would happen sooner on this route. The difference, however, was today I took my TT bike. Hell, if I'm going to ride alone for a good portion of the ride, I may as well have some fun.
When I took off, I was trying to watch the clock just to see where I would be when I hit the 2 minute mark. I thought that put me only as far as Anteater, but after playing back my Garmin data on their website, I realized I hadn't even reached Anteater yet when 2 minutes hit. I'm sure more panic would have set in had I known this during the ride.
When I got to NPC, I wanted to keep a good pace going up but didn't want to blow out my legs trying to do so. I did end up dropping down to the small ring up front halfway through just to make sure I'd have enough at the top to work on trying to extend the gap again. However, this strategy proved to be flawed only because by the time I got to the top and tried to shift back to the big ring, my chain dropped! Damn! I was trying to get it back on the ring while pedaling (it works sometimes) but no luck. I had to get off the bike just to be able to get it back on, and the whole time I was doing it I was also watching to see if/when someone would come around. I was surprised no one was there yet by the time I got it back on and got going again, but then what happens: I hit the first light (where it turns right into the horseshoe). As I started to go again, I turned around and saw the almighty Todd Jacobs fast approaching, so I hightailed it up and over the rollers and down the other side.
By luck, I was able to get through the light on Spyglass whereas it was turning yellow just as I had gone through. I figured this would buy me some time, but there were still a lot of lights to go as well. For every light I hit, I turned around and watched to see if Todd and the others were making their way toward me. I'm surprised I didn't kink my neck from turning around as much as I did.
Anyway, long story short is that the guys were not able to catch me today. I totally took advantage of being on the TT on the rollers and on BB, but I always believed that at some point I will get caught. Even on the light to go across University to go up California, I kept thinking they're coming. However, I got lucky and managed to keep the hunters from taking me down today.
I'm sure the rules will change for the next time, but then Shannon, Galen, Vince and others will probably show up and skew it in favor of the peloton vs. the rabbit. In any case, I hope the objective of getting a good training ride in was met. I know I got worked.
Thanks, gents!
No comments:
Post a Comment