My re-cap of today’s ride, the unabridged version, reading it is certainly optional!
Today, had a lot of things going for it as far as expectations of ride quality go. The last Saturday of the month the TwoHubs crew rides, Food Park was one, and finally the Tour De France was starting. With all that to look forward to why bother worrying about things like the weather….
Around 7:15 I rolled into the TwoHubs lot figuring I was a bit early. This wasn’t the last time I’d be thinking, “Do I have the right time?” Anyway, by 8am I realized something was off and I had better roll for Food Park. I’d be the only one representing TwoHubstoday, which by the way, means a nice BLACK jersey.
During the 15miles to the Coffee Bean (where FP starts) I kept wondering, “Do they really start at 8:45?” I must have read that wrong? Vince was pretty amazed too, but luckily it is true. Although, if you aren’t in the pro pelaton, starting at almost 9am means you probably aren’t itching to crush it.
We got rolling on time. The pace picked up nicely. And, it was just nice to be in the peloton moving at near 30mph, my how the bikes were whistling J
The course went to Sand Canyon then towards Quail Hill, which means a round-about. We collided with another crew there but got through, as they circled and circled. At the first light the lead group got broke away and the rest of us could do nothing but watch. Vince looked back for me, from the front row, and I knew what that meant.
It seemed like we could regroup by the crest of the incline, but after another light we were not closing. Vince and I were trying though, and it was getting pretty painful. I believe Jaffe wasn’t too far back, he was with us by the time we got back to Alton.
Somewhere about this time Vince and I got separated, he was up front and made a turn, I was mid pack and not in position to go with. The lead group somewhere ahead.
After the turn onto Irvine Center quite a bit of yelling ensued do to some of the guys running the lights due to the intersections being vacant. Yeah, I suppose that is a bit of a problem. As I watched the lead group disappear into the horizon and the vocal folks turning into conversationalists I knew I had a bit of a problem, particularly with Vince out of sight also.
Jaffe and I were working the front with some of the strong guys I recognized from the Coffee Crew, particularly the Ferrari guys, who really move. On the climb from Lake Forest to El Toro we tried to regroup with the front runners via a bike path short cut. Unfortunately, as I found out later, Jaffe had dropped his water and so we got separated. But, my move nearly worked, they were in sight, but then, another light, Doh!
Luckily, another rider started working with me on the Laguna Cyn. If the heat wasn’t a complete punch in the face, it was blatantly obvious by the cars backed up to El Toro en route to the beach.
I didn’t know where Vince came from but we regrouped just past NPC and started rotating with some others through CDM. Near Jamboree I was Vince harnessed his inner Galen and took the lead. Nice! The group dissipated at SART, Vince led Jaffe and us to a detour entrance, near his house, and the two of us headed for the hills.
On the entire 22 miles of SART we worked together with exactly zero people. At the usual Circle K we refueled and then made our way to the Imperial climb. The temps were really rising by this point, my garminseemed inflated, but was showing about 100.
So it started to get a bit more interesting when we rolled up on the Jamboree/Santiago Chevron. I wanted to get more water in case we had any trouble in the Canyon, which was looking likely given the traffic going into it was backed up to nearly where we were standing. The gas station was reminding me of a Laughlin River Run, I’ve never seen a photo shoot for Low Rider magazine, but they may have been happening? What was definitely happening was folks icing down six packs in their saddle bags and gearing up for what appeared to be the rest of the day.
The climb up Dump Hill started out nicely, we were making our way past the parked cars. Eventually, people started jumping out their cars. By this point it was HOT and refreshments or something was in order. I may have been hallucinating, there appeared to be a guy with a full set of drums playing there in the gravel.
Soon enough Jaffe and I had an entire line of Harley Davidsons following us in the bike lane. I thought they wanted to go by, but when the leader was yelling, “No, it’s cool, come on!” I guessed he was okay with my pace. It was getting hairy though due to broken down cars, and cars now following in the bike lane. Finally, past Irvine lake the Born Free contingent made their exit.
Jaffe and I got past Silverado and came up on another rider. Any Christians please pardon me, but the guy was wearing a pink sweatshirt that proudly said he got his power from Jesus Christ, and full gloves, or mittens. When we went around he proudly stated he would ride beside us. That was fine, but kind of strange. Once it started seeming really strange I upshifted and tried to get away. I don’t get beaten down in the canyon that often, but I was side by side with this guy for about three miles. I didn’t know if I should back off so he didn’t stroke out or what, but after a while I had no choice as it was 106 degrees and this guy wasn’t even breathing hard. There was something divine going on out there, the dude was possibly 70 years old, full beard, and certainly holding his own. If only Jaffe hadn’t seen it I could have written it off as a delusion.
Somehow Jaffe persevered and I see he made it home, I turned off just past Glen Ranch. Nice work Jaffe!
Shannon
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