OG Crew Coastal Ride

Strava:  https://www.strava.com/activities/79624018

It was a year ago today when S-Gary had his accident and broke his hip.  Thus, when he suggested an anniversary ride of this event, I considered it a celebration of his recovery and hoped that it would kick off his return to where he could once again be a constant fixture in our lunch rides and regular events.

As an added bonus, it was nice to have Shannon back from his Maui trip and raring to get back out on the bike.  He's always good company on rides, not just for being a workhorse, but also just always having the very thing you need (aka bike McGyver).

We all agreed to do a non-race pace today to help being Gary's base miles up.   His last long ride was about 40 but in the absence of BAM company, so a 60 miler was the plan.  I was more than fine with this given my near death experience on Saturday (massive dehydration) , and I'm sure Shannon having just come back from vacation didn't want to do any more than that either.  It was going to be a true team ride where no one gets left behind but everyone gets a great workout.

We rolled at shortly after 7 and were surprised that the weather was actually quite pleasant...a little cool even.  The only problem was the fog and the headwinds here and there, but overall it was definitely a better day to ride than Saturday or Sunday.

We had a great warm up on the way to the bike trail that heads down to Doheny where the rotations started.  It was like old times rotating with these guys...smooth and timely.  We held a good pace all the way to San Clemente where we came up on some other cyclists who I thoughtay want to mix it up.  They didn't.  

We kept the pace up with only a few BAM surges here and there as we made our way to Dan Onofre State Beach.   We took a quick bio break once we got there, and after rolling out got passed by a group of other cyclists.  At first, we didn't jump on as they seemed like they passed us at a pretty good clip, but after we started accelerating on our own with Shannon pulling us, we rolled up on some of them and eventually their front group.  While we were going to take advantage of their draft, Shannon had indicated that they seemed to ride rather erratically, so we dropped off and did our own thing.  Sure enough, they were again stopped in front of us and even blocking the trails and making u-turns that It was obvious Shannom had judged them correctly.

We rode on through the base where Gary was wanting to manage his output to make it for the distance of the ride.  This, Shannon and I took turns up front and worked together to get us all to the McDonalds to take a break.  

When we took off to head back, it was nice that the weather was still cool...maybe a little too cool but still better than unforgiving heat.  We made our way through the base and the state beach seeing more people going the opposite way the the way we were heading.  It was a good ride back, but I did end up getting a flat just after the protected bike trail that lead away from down town San Clemente.  Two spare tires later (Shannon, I owe you a spare tire and Co2), we were off. 

The headwinds on the way back seemed pretty gnarly, but we still managed to keep a solid average all the way back.  61 miles for all of us...perfect.

When we got back, we tossed back some beers and this is truly the part I enjoy.  Doing a lot of solo riding lately, drinking while my kids watch the ABC family channel isn't the same as doing so with the guys.  We got to talk about future rides and stuff, so I'm hoping this will be a stepping stone to more group riding in the weeks to come.  I'm really looking forward to this....