Strava: http://app.strava.com/activities/57763345
With no one available to do a team training ride, I opted to do Como Street with every intent to do some additional miles after in the form of a reverse loop. I'm still trying to log more miles, so 60+ would have been good today. Jaffe had even pinged me offline on Friday suggesting he may accompany me for a second loop as he had done previously, so why did I end up only doing the short course today? I'll tell you why. If I may be allowed to personify Como Street, I'd say it's because he handed me my ass upon my return from today's ride. I PR'd the ride as a result, but I had absolutely nothing left for more. Damn...only human.
Jaffe and I left from the start together, and after the first couple turns, I saw two kitted guys on a tandem making their way up toward the front early on. Oh great, here we go. Sure enough, it was probably one of the faster starts that I can recall. Jaffe and I had gotten split up, but we were both finding pockets to hide in within the peloton as we made our way to El Toro at speed.
We both were riding together once we started the ascent on El Toro, but today was different for me. I typically like to make my way up to the front early, but the pace in the beginning already had me feeling a little empty. Thus, I tucked behind some tall guy and stayed there pretty much all the way up to Santa Margarita. Jaffe was right there with us as well, but the pace going up past Glenn Ranch probably got the best of him and nearly had me pulling a Roberto Duran calling out "no mas." I barely made it though but continued to work on recovering as we made our way to Cooks.
The group I was in was still pretty good sized as I made my way to Cooks with them, but I actually lost sight of how big. I was too deep in the group to see if there were any breakaways, so when Jaffe asked me if I stayed up front the whole time at the end of the ride, I honestly didn't know. I did make my way past several people and was a little off from a group of about 10-15 by the first crest. Two other guys had gotten behind me at that point but wasn't ready to take a pull, so I kept trying to close on the front group. By the 2nd crest, however, one of the guys opted to take the front and help me give chase. The bigger group had gotten a pretty good gap on us, so it took a good portion of the descent to be able to latch onto them. Even the 3rd guy got in the mix finally to help close the gap, but we all worked our asses off to get it done.
While latched on, me and guy#2 were doing our best to recover and stay latched on, and #3 gave it his best but popped off eventually. We skipped getting into the rotation right away, but we were only able to get away with that for so long. Ultimately, we both got pushed up to the front and even had to rotate back in early a couple times while there was some attrition occurring.
The group was definitely less than 10 when we hit Dump, and I was at the back of the group where I thought a standing climb should allow me to find a rhythm and stay with a group. I was pretty spent though at that point so all I could do was watch them pull away. I kept my pace and did end up reeling in a couple guys who popped off, but by the time I got to the top, all I could hope for was for the guys up front to get caught on the lights over the 261. As luck would have it, they all made it through the green and I got stopped at the first light with three vehicles (two trucks with one pulling a trailer and a car) making a right turn onto it in front of me). That pretty much ended my hopes of keeping up with that group.
I did pick it up once the light turned green but it was only enough to be able to watch the group ahead make the left turn on a green light to Jamboree. Upon my arrival to that intersection, I caught the red light along with one of the guys who had popped off and had arrived there just ahead of me. A group of about 5-6 came up behind us, so there were more people to mix it up with for the rest of the way back.
I probably got a little overzealous heading back from that point given that they were chase group, so I did overextend myself a couple times during some pulls and while chasing some breakaway attempt. I actually popped off at one point, but caught those ahead of me at a light and continued to mix it up after. I did get to Irvine Blvd ahead of them, but that may just be because normal people cool down. HA HA.
Upon arriving at my car, I think I spent only about one second considering another loop but came to my senses and decided it would be more harmful than healthy to continue on. Thus, thank you, Mr. Como Street for handing me my ass today. I think I'll be doing something different next week.
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