Strava: http://app.strava.com/activities/51263831 (Como); http://app.strava.com/activities/51263826 (post-Como)
Since I'll be in India in two weeks during Mother's day, I opted to celebrate it early and take my mom to my favorite AYCE sushi joint...Todai at the Westminster mall. Of course, being Filipino I gotta get my money's worth so I interpret "all you can eat" LITERALLY. The nice thing is the place serves sashimi in tray fulls, so three plates later, I'm actually at the point where I'm uncomfortable. Breathing is difficult and walking after even more so. So what does this have to do with cycling?!? Well, THIS was the reason why I would not have been satisfied with just a 32 mile training ride. Thus, regardless of how painful Como was (and it was painful alright), I was going to do another loop no matter how long it took and how hard it was. Period.
I had solicited our team to see who was going to Como, but no one responded where I was pretty certain I was going to be representing Team BRCM solo. Lo and behold, as I'm almost ready to start the ride, I see Jaffe roll up (in his standard blue jersey for Como). Vin ended up rolling up on us as well as he intercepted the peloton from Jeffrey, and he donned BRCM black. I was in the new white.
The air was a little cool at the start so the slow warm up (~16 mph) on Bryan took a while to get me going unlike when I left from Vin's the last time. It was a pretty good sized group today though and it appears a lot came out after racing yesterday in San Luis Rey because I could hear several people talking about it around me. It picked up a little bit on Irvine Blvd but as usual, the intensity increases on the climb up El Toro.
Vin and I were together up until El Toro, but I started to make my way up closer to the front earlier on to avoid having to bridge any gaps from some random surging. I was on the outside though and had to wait until an opportunity presented itself to jump behind someone for some relief. Thankfully, the group stayed together as a whole all the way up to Santa Margarita where the short and long courses split. I said where the short and long courses split.
Less than a handful of guys made the turn to go long, but ended up turning around to come back and do the short course today. Needless to say, there was a LOT of people out there today heading towards Cooks. Immediately, I started to take a bite of humble pie and did what I could to just be within the first half of the group as we kept going toward Cooks. As we got a little closer, I did pick it up and was probably in the top quarter of the group by the base of the climb. I pushed up some more as we started to climb, but I did have to accelerate to bridge some gaps that formed a couple times. After the 2nd time, the group ahead of me wasn't too big but I couldn't stay latched on anymore and started to fall off. I then found myself in between the breakaway and some chase groups. A few guys passed me before the 2nd crest, but I managed to latch onto the next where we managed to reel in the few guys ahead of us. I couldn't see anyone ahead of us after a while, but that's not to say there wasn't anyone else ahead of us. I just couldn't see them if they were.
We had a pretty good group, but I don't think we were working very efficiently. I didn't mind as it gave me some recovery time, but I'm sure we could have gone a lot faster if we had. After a while, our group had grown as we were caught by another chase group making it an even bigger group. Good, more rest time to prepare for Dump.
Once we got to Dump, I was toward the back and I saw the guys ahead start charging. I swung out and passed several guys to make my way toward the front to get to the guys who broke away, but about 3/4 of the way ran out of gas (again...sigh) and started getting passed by others. Fortunately, I was just able to latch on to the last guy who passed me and got pulled up to the top and over. We got stopped at the light over the toll road, and some guys sprinted after where I chased them down but did not get in the sprint as by the time I started to pass, no one was sprinting anymore. HA HA. I ended up leading after that to Jamboree.
At the intersection to turn left on Jamboree, I see Jaffe roll up next to me where I was a little perplexed. I actually expected that Vin would roll up first, but I guess Jaffe had a good day after exchanging some pulls with a guy on a TT bike. Jaffe came with me and we worked on Jamboree to lead the group on some sections as we headed to Portola and ultimately back to the Starbucks. There was a sprint on Jamboree as well after Champion or another street, but I was late for that party as well. HA HA.
22 mph average for the ride was pretty impressive considering how slow we went initially. I was feeling pretty cooked and almost questioned whether a 2nd loop would be a good idea. However, Jaffe and Vin came by my car and were willing to come with me, so back through the canyon the opposite way we went.
I told the guys my goal was to work on some standing climbing and had no plans to breakaway, so for the most part that's exactly what I did. I was trying to hold a good pace that wouldn't be too intense, allow us all to stay together but still allow us to pass people. When we saw some guys ahead of us on Jamboree just after Portola, Vin reminded me that it was okay that they stayed ahead but it wasn't too long before we were making our way past them.
Vin and Jaffe were doing well and we all stayed together through Jamboree and up Dump. They did start to drop a little on Dump but slowly made their way back up to me while I worked on my standing climb. Nice.
Now, I had been content to stay up front and keep the pace moderate to keep us together, but I guess Jaffe started to feel guilty and ended up taking the front to give me a little reprieve from the wind. I actually thought my pace was still pretty good, but who am I to argue if he wants to pull? I didn't hold him out too long though and took the front again all the way to Modjeska. Just before we got to the climb, Jaffe took the front again and I told Vin to get on his wheel while I took a swig of water. I got going after and saw two people up ahead of us, so I opted to pick it up a notch and make my way up to them before we reached the first peak. Unfortunately, Jaffe and Vin were not up for the pace and fell back, but we regrouped at the 2nd peak just before the descent to Cooks.
We brought the pace up some now that we were done with most of the climbing, and Vin broke off to Santa Margarita to go home while Jaffe and I continued on. Jaffe and I rode together to Sand Canyon on Irvine Blvd, and he made his way home from there. I still had to go back to the Starbucks at Tustin Market, so I made the rest of the way back solo always looking for someone to chase down. HA HA
I'm pretty certain all the sushi and other junk I ate was all gone, because by the time I rolled up to my car, I was starving. Good enough. I'm glad Vin and Jaffe came with me as it definitely made it more interesting than riding alone. Thanks, guys! 19.5 mph average not too shabby considering the winds.
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