Lunch Ride - Strava Can Suck It

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/activities/49463072

So yesterday, I had this epiphany that more people may want to come out on a lunch ride if there were specific Strava segments they could move up on or at a minimum at least improve their existing time.  The premise behind this was based on a series of recent "Uh Oh" e-mails indicating that someone either stole one of our KOMs or tied it.  Coincidentally, I received yet another one of these e-mail after planning this ride.  Unfortunately, it did not bring out the numbers I was hoping in order to tackle designated segments, but one original BAMMER decided to come back out and join us:  Andy!  He looked like he was in good form and hopefully will be joining us more often.  The rest of the crew out today were Vince, Vin, Jaffe and Mitchell.

So the plan was to attack the Back Bay segments as well as those on Bonita Canyon, but unfortunately, Mother Nature does not look at Weather.com.  I was hoping for some good NE or NNE winds to help push us through them, but if anything I think we faced headwinds in both sections that made it unrealistic to even try.  That's not to say we wouldn't push through them or anything, but we definitely had no expectations of achieving any medal glory.

We did start out mellow as planned, and I hoped to stay in the back until we got to Back Bay since I was on my TT bike.  The reasoning here would be that if I pushed up to the front immediately, it may string out our group right away and we wouldn't be able to take advantage of a group effort to achieve a good segment run.  On the way down California, however, just coasting down that road had me up front already, so I made an effort to stay in the back once we got on the bike trail.  Vince was just ahead of me, and Andy in front of him.  We let Vin, Mitchell and Jaffe set the pace so that they, too, can contribute to the BB run vs. being spent already by the time we got there.  It all seemed like a good idea despite already feeling that the wind would be limiting factor, but Andy having dropped his bottle pretty much scattered the group immediately.  Vince and I checked up to wait, but the others pushed ahead and didn't even slow down despite me calling out to wait.  Sigh.

Andy had been able to catch up before Eastbluff and even got in front of me before Back Bay, but Jaffe and Mitchell had already dropped in while Vin lingered near the top as we approached the gate.  As we rounded, Vince gave the GO and I went ahead and pushed up front to chase Jaffe and Mitchell down.  I did have to avoid a white Nissan at the beginning of the drop, but everyone else managed to clear it okay behind me.

Despite the winds, I was able to catch Jaffe and Mitchell (Jaffe seemed like he was panting pretty hard as I passed but this is understandable given the wind), and Mitchell latched on where after a while it was just me, him and Vince.  Working the front in the wind was tough, but I believe more so for the other two even just to be able to keep up.  Nevertheless, Vince and Mitchell did push up and take a turn or two during the run where despite the winds, we still managed a respectable ~26 mph average to San Joaquin that dropped slightly to 25.3 by the time we reached the other gate.  These were definitely no PRs by any means, but it was still a helluva workout.

We all regrouped on PCH just at the top of Jamboree, and rode together down toward CDM.  Vince charged up the Fernleaf kicker segment, and Vin followed him where they were broken away for a little bit as we rode through Ocean.  However, by the time we got back on PCH, we all had gotten together again.

When we got to NPC, I was worried that I won't be able to keep up with the group on my TT bike, but after Vince outright called me a female reproductive organ, I said no more and decided to make the best of it.  We weren't suppose to charge it anyway, so it shouldn't be too bad.

Going up Pelican, Jaffe and Vin opted to pick up the pace some and had actually gapped the rest of us.  Andy was doing well though and kept pace as we made our way up to them just before the real climbing began on the other side.  I opted to stand it up and push a little more on that climb after a while, and Vince came with me to NPC where we regrouped with the others just after the light.

Given that our efforts on Bonita Canyon would likely be foiled by the wind as was the case on BB, Vince and I ended up tearing down NPC and actually managed to make the left turn green light at the bottom.  We had broken away from the others, and I guess Vince was just ready to get back so he took off and I ended up following.  As expected, there would be no medal glory after the 73, so we just did what we could to get a good workout for the rest of the way back.

Overall, it was another great workout, but I'm pretty much tired of this wind just as everyone else probably is based on the titles of rides I'm seeing on Strava.  Hopefully, we can try something like this again with more participants, but this is a crew that's difficult to harness where I may have to come up with something more alluring to get everyone to come out and give it a go.  Wish me luck.