Lunch Ride - The Turtle Rock Ring Loop

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/activities/43295909

Attendees:  Vin, Todd, Shannon, Jaffe and Jeremy

Smaller crew than normal today, but the intensity level was nonetheless painful. Team BMC was in full effect today with 3, so it was not only fast...it was sexy.  Hey, I can write what I want...authoring has its privileges.

While a little cool in the beginning with others wear arm warmers for the ride, I sought my warmth by trying to work early.  Todd just came back from higher elevation (never a good thing) and Shannon...well, he's just Shannon.

Shannon started things off early on, but Todd was already interested in bringing the pace up by E. Peltason.  I knew he'd come back with his mountain lungs, so I told him in the locker room I'd hold him out as much as I could.  HA HA.  so I did.  When I did try to pass him at the end of the S-Gary segment, of course he wouldn't have any of it.

When we got going up the Shady rise toward Sunnyhill, it was good to see everyone working.  This even continued onto Turtle Rock, but on the other side when we started climbing, Shannon and Todd led the pack.  I had visions of glory with thoughts of trying to sprint to the Ridgeline stop sign but thought better of it and waited to see when I could launch an attack.

We got a little strung out after the stop sign, but we managed to regroup on the other side as we headed back to Sunnyhill.  Todd still held the front, and by the time we got to the bike trail, Vin or Jeremy has made his way behind him with me in tow.

After we arrived at the first bridge, I thought I'd go ahead and make a move just to see if I could make it to the top first.  As I passed Jeremy and Todd, Jeremy yelled out words of encouragement and I thought maybe I could do this.  I did manage to gap everyone for a bit but I could see that they were working their way back up to me.  Shannon led the charge, and by the time we were going up the final rise after the 2nd bridge, Shannon, Todd and Vin made their way past me.  Nice work!  So much for breaking away, but I think Vince would be proud of me for trying.

After cresting, the three had a fairly decent gap on me, but I managed to make my way back up to them by the time we got on the bike trail heading parallel to the 405.  Shannon was up front first, but Vin took off a little gapping us while I stayed behind Todd.  When Todd decided to make his way to Vin, I latched on.  Todd looked back to see if I was still on, and then gave it a little gas for the bridge (or so it seemed).  I came around to pass just before in case it was still considered a designated sprint zone.

We regrouped after the bridge a little, but I was in self-preservation mode trying to recover from the earlier efforts.  Vin, Todd and Shannon led us to Ridgeline, where after the light, Shannon started us off.  I probably held him up front for a bit longer than he wanted, but I did take the front when it pitched up the first time.  Todd and Vin were in the draft, so I was doing what I could to keep the pace up.  Todd eventually passed me and took the front where I was just able to latch on, and we made it up to Turtle Rock with Vin and Shannon just behind us.

We were still pushing on the descent down Turtle Rock toward Campus, and at the bottom, I thought I created a small gap from the others where if the light on Culver worked out for me, I would have tried yet another break.  Well, Vin and the others caught me before then and we all got stopped at the light.

Once we got going again on Bonita Canyon, I was feeling the earlier efforts for sure and was content to just try and stay in the draft up the climb if I could.  Shannon was pushing hard (or so it felt) where I almost opted out of the draft just to recover but since Vin kept going, I pushed through...barely.  That hill felt like it was never going to end!

The rest of Bonita Canyon had us all alternating turns, and we were all just able to get through the light at McArthur in the green (thanks to Shannon).  I tried to push up front to lead for the climb up Jamboree, but was coughing trying to get some air in my lungs for the charge.  well, before we could arrive to the condo, Shannon and Todd had gotten ahead of me and started the charge.  I found a pretty good rhythm though and started working my way to try and get past them.  When I did pass, I tried to let them know so that they can latch on.  Todd managed to do so, and took off past me at the false flat near the top.  Nice!

Once regrouped at the light on McArthur, I was trying to catch my breath and prepare for the attacks that Vin's been launching during the final sprint to California.  He's been breaking away lately at this section, so I had my target set on him.  As we got past the final light over the 73, he had tried to take off but realized that I was just behind him.  I called out to him "Go ahead!  Pull the trigger!"  ...So he did and took off.  I didn't have any standing sprint left in me after Jamboree, but I wasn't just going to let him get away.  I just started mashing the pedals while seated (even grunting in the process using my kung fu chi) and did manage to just get past him before the intersection.  At the rate we were traveling though, I really had to lean into the turn just to make it.  I'll be wearing knee pucks for the next ride.

Anyway, it was a pretty intense ride with almost a 22 mph average for the route.  Great work out there, gents!  Thanks for the training!