Lunch Ride - What Was Supposed to be a Taper Ride for Me.....

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/activities/47256082

In life, there are good ideas and bad ideas.  While it may be a good idea to spin the legs some during the week of big race, it's definitely a BAD idea to believe you can take it easy during a lunch ride with the BRCM crew.  Vince, Galen, Adrian, Jeremy, Vin, Mitchell and Jaffe came out and made sure of it.

Even from the back, I could feel the intensity of the ride as we made our way out through the S-Gary Peltason segment.  20.1 mph average here is definitely respectable considering the winds today.  Nevertheless, everyone managed to stay together with Galen doing a bulk of the work to get us through it.

When we went up NPC, Galen once again took the front early on and started to gap everyone.  I saw Vince in chase mode with Mitchell on his rear wheel ahead of me, so I made my way up to them and had a couple riders latch on behind me.  In the end, I think Jeremy was the only one who stayed on as we all pretty much rode up NPC behind Galen.  

We proceeded to Pelican where a car the opposite direction had gotten the left turn green light just as we approached.  This caused Jeremy and I to get a little separated from the group, but Jeremy worked to get us latched back on before the downhill at the top.  Good job!

The pace was pretty fast as we headed down and started climbing up, but I think there was a car on the ascend that had to have us check up a little preventing any Strava glory. Once we got going though, the heat continued....

We made our way down NPC and onto PCH, and Vince (in typical fashion) seemed eager for a breakaway, but everyone was able to stay together (mostly because they'd sit behind Galen to close any gaps formed).  We saw Jaffe, Adrian and Vin ahead of us, so either they hit a time warp space continuum or they skipped Pelican.  You decide.

Going through CDM was a little bit of a cluster, and we ended up losing Jeremy as we made our way onto Poppy.  Adrian's chain dropped as we hit Ocean, and after the steep downhill got a little separated because of some cross traffic.  Are ya sure this way is safer than staying on PCH?  HAHA

We were all together again, including Adrian, by the time we got back to PCH.  At one point after a light though, the crew dropped the hammer and Jaffe got caught sleeping.  Of course, I was behind him.  HAHA....not funny.   I broke off to try and catch the group ahead, but the headwind out there was just ridiculous.  It was impressive how they held their speed for so long, and I was just fortunate to catch them at the light on Jamboree.  Jaffe was also.

We went through the bike trail by the trailer park probably a little faster than we should, but fortunately it was incident free.  Once we got on Back Bay, the pace picked up even more and was pretty much bordering on ridiculous (haven't heard that in a while).  I stayed in the back as long as I could, but had to push up when guys would pop off (cough, Mitchell, cough).  I had thought about breaking off early toward the end just to make things interesting, but the group seemed like they were going to just stick together the whole time with no attempts to break at the hill.  Once we got to the base though, Vince and Galen seemingly went for it...so I pulled out  and followed.  I don't really think I was trying to get to the top first, but the two were not expecting me where I managed to squeeze ahead of them onto the sidewalk.

Of course, doing a move like this isn't my typical MO...or is it, but I learned it from Noah who did the same thing to us on Saturday.  As a result though, I felt guilty and decided to go ahead and stay up front leading us over to University.  Jeremy took the front after and seeing no one follow him, I got on his rear wheel but I guess Galen was right behind me.  Galen then came around and started to charge the front and all I could do was just latch back onto his wheel as we made our way to California.

Up California, Jeremy generously held the front for most of the climb and I took over just after the last grade.  I know, I know, but I'm suppose to be saving it, remember?  Saving it my ass though:  21.7 mph average with 161 average HR.  I'm sure I'll pay for this on Sunday.

Thanks for letting me hang with you fellas today.  I think.