Strava: http://app.strava.com/activities/50680724
Last Tuesday, Todd had added a comment to my blog indicating that Vince was back. Based on today's ride, I can pretty much attest to that. Although we saw Todd today in the locker room, he was saving it for the TT tonight at GP, so I thought with the small numbers we had (Vince, Vin, Hiroshi, Mitchell and me), it shouldn't be too nutty. In typical Vince fashion though, he kept us honest for sure.
Even at the beginning of the ride, I was thinking it shouldn't be too fast, but the moment we turned right on E. Peltason, I felt like I was already struggling to keep up. Hiroshi took off up the hill followed by the others except Vin, who opted to stay behind me. When I tried to get on it, I looked up only to realize I wasn't making any ground on them. Damn! I talked to Vin after the ride and told him about that part, and he thought I was just chillin'. Nope. Nice work, Hiroshi!
Due to the above, I didn't even want to get up front until after we got on Anteater, but I knew I had to or Vince would let me know about it in the locker room. HA HA. The truth is he may or may not, but I'm always thinking that way when I ride at lunch.
We all managed to stay together on Bonita Canyon and up San Miguel where we opted to cross the street rather than making the left turn to Spyglass. Vince, having led up San Miguel jumped ahead of everyone right away on Spyglass, and had an early gap. I ended up catching and passing him, but only temporarily where he passed me before we got to the top. We were alone at that point, so I was content to just ride with him for the rest of the ride if the others didn't catch us at a light.
When we got to San Joaquin, however, Vince opted to make it interesting and performed a TLB so I guess the riding together business was pretty much out at that point. It made for a better workout though. By the time the light turned green, Mitchell and Vin just caught it and immediately started up the hill ahead of me. I made my way past Vin first, and continued to work until I made my way past Mitchell, but Mitchell latched on when I did. I was glad since I knew I could benefit from him coming with me to chase Vince down.
Vince, however, wasn't going to make it easy for us though and pretty much held a good gap on us solo all the way through Pelican and most of the way on PCH. We started closing as we neared Poppy and just came up behind him on the left turn light. Without Mitchell, I'd have never gotten it done alone for sure.
Riding through CDM was uneventful for the three of us, and once we got on PCH, we started working together again all the way to Jamboree. I think we passed a couple riders on the way there, but no one was willing to jump in and join us.
As we made our way onto Back Bay, I had the front and saw a guy ahead of us looking back every once in a while as we made our way toward him. He was sitting up initially where I thought he was on a road bike, but as we started to approach him, you see him drop down onto his aero bars and start going for it on his TT bike. I chased him down though and latched us three onto the back of his rear wheel just a little after entering Back Bay. When he saw us behind him though, I think he picked it up more but we stayed on him like bees on honey, white on rice, BAM on beer (or vice versa), etc.
TT guy checked up a little as we approached San Joaquin where I thought he was done, so I started to pass him only to have him drop back down on the aeros and go for it again. Vince was ready for him though and latched onto his rear wheel immediately but it took me a little bit just to be able to do so. When I did, I looked back and didn't see Mitchell behind me anymore. Looking down at my speed, we were bouncing in and out of 31 mph, so props to TT guy for the effort. Somewhere in the middle of the 2nd Back Bay section though, he either had enough and popped off or realized he couldn't drop us so he rolled off. Vince and I swung around and kept going on our own keeing the speed up where TT guy didn't end up coming with us. We exchanged pulls and when we got to the wall, Vince darted up it ahead of me where I couldn't close the gap.
After we got to the top and crossed, Vince was still slightly ahead of me on Jamboree, and I thought for sure I'd do okay and at the very least latch on to his rear wheel. Nope...he kept me off of him all the way up and to the left turn lane to Bison. Kudos. Yep...this is the Vince that's back that Todd was talking about. (Apply love/hate sentiments here. - for clarification, this in BAM just means mad respect).
We both rode on Bison, and I was certain he would try to make me his son for the final sprint to California, so I took off as soon as I knew I could cross the 2nd light over the 73 with a green. The funny thing is I thought I could hear his bike behind me, so I pedaled my ass off only to look back and realize he didn't follow me. Yep...another moment I probably looked like an idiot to onlookers. I'm used to it.
Great workout today, gents. My legs are fried.
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