The Return to Como

Strava:  http://www.strava.com/activities/109141230

Although Shannon's race report may be more interesting should he write one on his podium finish at the Oak Hill TT (Congrats!), I thought I'd write about my "adventure" today on the Como Street ride.  It's been awhile since I've done this ride, but with all the side chatter we've been having among the team about events and racing planned for the year, I couldn't pass up this ride.  This is despite my legs feeling wrecked all weekend thanks to my return to running on Friday plus yesterday's TT solo trainer.  Even as I write this, I'm once again in my compression pants hoping that tomorrow will offer some reprieve from the pain.  But, whatever....

When I got up this morning, I almost convinced myself to jump back in bed as there would be no way I could keep up.  However, the thought of letting down the team should they decide we're racing next weekend was just to overwhelming where I forced myself to go.  Having mounted my power tab wheels on my BMC, I figured at the very least I'd be able to get some good power data on this bike from the ride.

It was a perfect weather morning with cool temps, no wind, and enough sun to offer great visibility.  These conditions would probably also make for faster times, so I was starting to actually look forward to it once I had gotten to the parking lot to get ready.  I was still hobbling around but the odd thing was after throwing a leg over my bike, it was far less uncomfortable than actually walking, standing, sitting, etc.  Go figure.

I saw one of my co-workers there who rides with TruCycling, so I hung out with him for a bit just before the start of the ride.  They didn't think they'd be able to keep up with the pace, so I parted ways just before the ride and ended up seeing Jaffe at the corner from where it started.   Cool.  There was a pretty sizable group out there in the beginning, and there were a lot of female riders out there as well.   I guess everyone's in race training mode.

The pace was nice and easy in the beginning, and I planned on staying in the draft as much as I could until the canyon.  However, there was a little split at a light where I got caught in the red behind a bunch of others.  When the light turned green, me and another guys had gotten pushed to the front to work and close the gap with the guys ahead of us.  Thankfully, that was the extent of my work early on, so I was able to sit within the comfort of the draft all the way to El Toro. 

On El Toro, my plan was also to push up to the front early, but I opted to stay in the peloton as much as I could to monitor my power.  I was being watchful for any hard breaks, but fortunately, no one was making any effort to breakaway too early. The group pretty much stayed intact all the way to the Santa Margarita turn where people broke off to do the long route.  I barely had the legs to do the short route, so I could not conceive even thinking about trying to hang on the long route.

There were were a good amount of people doing the short route, including Jaffe, so I was just going to continue to manage my power but watch out for any breaks simultaneously.  While the climb to the top before the drop down to Cook's was as hard as I remembered, I had worked less managing my power and still not pushing up where I felt okay as we approached and passed Cooks to begin the climb.

I was probably toward the tail end of the group as we started the climb, and it looked like the group at first was going to stay intact.  However, I began to see others struggling to keep up, so I had to surge up a few times just to be able to close the gap and keep up with the front group.  Those surges were costly, however, where after passing the first crest, I was just slightly behind the front group.  Looking back, we had dropped a lot of people, but one guy who had latched on to me pushed up and I was able to grab his rear wheel as we hit the 2nd crest and was able to descend with the front group.  Yay!

The rotations with this group wasn't like the ones I remembered from this ride in the past.  Sure the rotations were fast, but there were a lot of people who would end up skipping turns and having you rotate in front of them.  Also, there would be this one guy in a Rockform kit who would not only push up to the front to take a turn but do so breaking the rhythm every time with a sprint like pull.  I ended up chasing him down a couple times, but after a while, I realized we would end up picking him back up again some time after.  So I stopped chasing him, and just let the peloton catch up to him.   I definitely think we could have been faster if we didn't have all these surges and more people worked together, but I wasn't going to say anything.

At Dump, I was actually at the front upon approaching the hill, so I had to lead up it initially.  When the group started to pass me, I was able to latch on but I was a little more spent than I had wanted to be.  Near the top, a few guys broke off and I had gotten in a chase group just behind them.  We were able to reel them in a lot by the time we got close to Jamboree and had made it to the stop light to turn left just after them. 

When we got on Jamboree, it seemed no one wanted to push anymore, so I pushed to the front at the start of the climb.  One guy passed and I was hoping others would be following him, but others continued to line up behind me while I worked to close the gap that had formed due to my unfulfilled expectations.  Then others started sprinting off near the top, so I started giving chase but I wasn't feeling too heroic where I was happy to just not let anyone get away.  This pretty much continued on all the way through back to the shopping center, so it was nice to finish with the front guys on this route today.  It was a great workout for sure.  21.9 mph and we were chilling toward the end, so I'm happy.   Jaffe came in shortly after me and I guess he had gotten in a chase group who almost caught as the left turn light on Jamboree.  Good job!

Am I ready for next week's Boulevard race after today?  If anything, at least I remember what it's like to ride in large groups again and know how to look out for breakaways to be able to try and counter them.  I hope that's enough.

BRCM Lunch - Is This Training or Actually a Race? A Power Meter Would Be Stumped

Strava:  http://www.strava.com/activities/108489732

Attendees:  Todd, Vince, Mitchell, Vin, Adrian, Jaffe and Johnny (new)

Highlights:
- Health Sciences Road is still closed but with no sign!

- Todd led everyone out all the way to Bonita Canyon with no relief.  Even doing so, this was too hot for newcomer Johnny where he dropped at E. Peltason.

- I rotated with Todd after we got to Bonita Canyon, and we took turns all the way to Spyglass with me taking final pull.

- I think 2 people reminded me to get in my small ring earlier before the Spyglass climb.  Of course, the problem was on a different bike since I had my BMC today.  I did it anyway.  HA

- Todd led up Spyglass climb and started to pull away, but I popped off some midway with Vince passing me and getting up to the top just after Todd.  Mitchell stayed with me though and we made it together to San Joaquin fortunately catching the two ahead of us.

- Todd led up San Joaquin and had gapped early on where Mitchell passed both Vince and I to latch on.  I passed Vince who latched on to me, and I was able to make it up to Mitchell's wheel to ride the Todd train until it flattened out some.

- As we approached Ridgeline, I pointed that we were making a right but there were cars in the corner that had caused us to stop.  When the light turned green, Vince opted to go straight while a bewildered Todd and I made the right turn just as we signaled beforehand.  Mitchell came with.

- Todd and I worked together on NPC and Pelican and subsequently on PCH to Poppy.  Mitchell stayed with us there too.  Vince and Vin arrived shortly after and made the light with us.  I think Jaffe did too.  Johnny was at the corner waiting for Adrian who was nowhere to be seen.

- Vince was a little frustrated we didn't go straight to NPC from San Joaquin and I don't think Mitchell's response of how we improvised sat well with him.  Mitchell didn't care.  LOL

- We cruised CDM with me up front until just before we got on Avocado where Vin pulls up and ahead.  We pulled ahead on Avocado again and thankfully made the left green light back to PCH as we approached.

- Todd had the lead again with others behind, so after we got caught at a light, I pulled to the front to take the next pull down to Bayside and through the bike trail toward Back Bay.

- When Todd passed after we got on Back Bay, I was half expecting others to be on his wheel but instead I looked back and found they were on mine.  HAHAHA.  Todd had gapped me some at that point, but I was able to latch us back on before the gate.

- After Todd and I pulled out and rotated all the way to the Back, Vince took the front (and in my opinion was probably held out a little bit...cough, Jaffe, cough).  Vince managed to get us up to Adrian and Johnny, who came from out of nowhere, and then everyone else started to get pushed up to the front whether they liked it or not.

- After Todd's pull, I ended up taking the final pull to the end and my goal was to hopefully discourage a sprint pass by upping the intensity some.  That didn't really work to my advantage as it only made me pop just before the climb where Adrian (aka sprint queen) went by and got to the top first while all the others passed me too.  Mental note:  do not use this strategy during a real race.

- I was worked on Jamboree but managed to climb past a few but Todd, Vin and Vince in that order were not within my reach.

- You can tell there was going to be a sprint on Bison, but it's always a matter of how it's setup.  Todd's strategy was just to break away early.  Vince was thinking about it but didn't stay with Todd and opted to slow and set up just behind me after I passed.  Mitchell went by to start off the sprint for everyone else except Todd and I latched on and prepared to pass. Then Adrian started to go by and I had to pick it up just to be able to match his speed and he led us past Todd who said we looked like we were moving like bats out of hell.  Sprint queen won this one again.  Must be nice considering he only did half the route.  HAHAHA

Seriously, who needs to do the Boulevard race when we do 20 miles of pure agony locally?  Never a dull moment, Team BRCM.   Thanks!  Now to let my groin heal....

Lunch Ride - Let the Lunchtime Madness Resume!

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/activities/108061006

Attendees:  Vince, Todd, Mitchell, Vin, Jaffe and me

Highlights:
- Todd and I worked the first part of the ride taking us all out to the Bonita Canyon intersection at a pretty decent clip.  We started up the Shady rise together and Vince launches one of a few attacks before we got to the top, but we closed the gap quickly on that one.

- Everyone started working together on the Shady rise and subsequently on Turtle Rock taking some good pulls.

- Todd and I exchanged pulls after Campus, but Todd led us onto Starcrest where the rest of us lined up behind him.

- I tried to drop to the small ring as it got steeper and dropped my chain again.  Mitchell stopped to make sure I was okay (either that or laugh at me) while everyone continued up to the top with Todd taking top honors as expected.  Thankfully, they all waited at the top.

- I rolled by telling them to go and trying to stay with the group, but Vince passed me going down Ridgeline making another breakaway attempt.  We worked together and reeled him in on Shady heading up the hill toward Bonita Canyon.

- I was contemplating a sprint toward the bike trail, but I rolled up to the front and just tried to turn the heat up enough hoping no one would want to contest it.  Vince passed me just before the bike trail.

- Going up NPC, I tried to find a different tempo and passed Todd early on only to have him latch on with everyone else behind me.  When Todd passed, I latched on courtesy of Vince letting me in and fell into Todd's wicked tempo that he turns up when he wants to snap you off.  He did just that after the 73 underpass.  Vince passed me but I tried to stay close with Mitchell in tow.

- Todd checked up near the top after having gapped the rest of us and was soft pedaling on San Joaquin when Vince passed him to make yet another breakaway attempt.  Todd waited for me and we started to chase Vince down again closing the gap some on the horseshoe.

- Vince was elusive though and managed to regain a gap after getting back on San Joaquin.  we again started to close but ran out of real estate by the time we got to Spyglass.  I tried to sprint up to him on the climb, but lost momentum a little past half way where Todd and Mitchell made their way up to me.  Todd passed me and actually jumped on Vince's wheel originally only to pass him and have Vince latch on gapping Mitchell and I.  Thankfully, we caught them at the light at the bottom with vin there too (having skipped the horseshoe)

- Vince took off a little on San Miguel, but Todd was able to keep him honest and took the front followed by Vin.  I took the front after hoping to offer some payback for some of the pain they've been giving me earlier on.  We had to slow up on San Joaquin though due to some cars and a truck making a right.

- I started us off onto McArthur, but everyone there rotated to the front.  Vin was in front of me, so I waited for my turn and let him launch us once I saw that the light was green and going to hold for us.  I sprinted by and had Vince in tow with Todd having problems getting around the other guys to latch on right away.

- Vince took the front and again seemed to try another breakaway after we crossed Bonita canyon and I just hung on with the others just behind me.

- We got caught at the lights over the 73, but I was certain someone was going to want to sprint after the 2nd light, but I ended up sprinting off on my own.  That must look weird to strangers to see that I'd imagine.

- Almost 22 mph average for this route is crazy, but I guess that's what training is all about.  Thanks for coming out, gents!  Nice work out there.

2014 Stagecoach Team Time Trial - The Recap

Strava:  http://www.strava.com/activities/107362879

I think it was around October when we started talking about wanting to do the Stagecoach Team Time Trial again.   While last year's event isn't exactly something we reflect upon fondly, it was the idea that we could do so much better that got us wanting to give it another shot.  Doing the race no longer became a matter of winning or losing anymore because there are just too many things that can happen outside of our control.  However, what IS within our control is to do what we all knew we could do and that was beat our best time.  I knew we were faster this year, especially on the TT bikes, so it was time to prove it.  Galen even stepped up and picked up a Cervelo TT bike just so he can contribute more, so with all of us on TT bikes, we were definitely going to go out there and give it our best shot.

Now as early as we decided to do the race again, you'd think we'd have had plenty of time to get a lot of team training in.  Unfortunately, life sometimes gets in the way.  This isn't an excuse of any sorts but more of the reality in the lives of recreational racers.  We all did what we could to prepare ourselves for the race, and although there was a lapse of almost a month of being able to train  together, the training ride we had the week before the race seemed like we've been riding all along.

For this event, Shannon set up a cabin for us to rent in Pine Valley that ended up being ideal in so many ways.  It was closer to the race, we all got to hang out under one roof, we stayed the whole weekend costing less than what we would have paid at a hotel, and it was a really nice place.  Galen, Todd, Shannon, Adrian, Mitchell, Vin and me stayed comfortably where we all had our own beds, and we had the use of two bathrooms, a full kitchen where Shannon was able to use his culinary skills the night after the race, and where there was just plenty of space to move around.  It was perfect.  Good job, Shannon.

I drove down Friday afternoon with Todd, Galen and Adrian after having lunch near my house, and we expected to be at the cabin early enough to settle in, relax, and go to dinner together.  However, none of us ever bothered to look at the final rider instructions, which to this day I still couldn't find in my e-mail inbox.  After driving all the way down to Mission Valley to the Double Tree hotel, which at least we got the hotel name right, we realized that the host hotel was actually a Double Tree in Del Mar/Carmel Valley!  So much for tradition and believing that a host hotel was going to be somewhat close to the event.  After all was said and done, we spent almost 3 hours on the road where all we could do was go straight to dinner in Alpine after we picked up the packets.   Even that came with a little confusion.  We were suppose to meet Shannon at the same restaurant we've been to for the last 2 years, but my navigators ended up giving him the wrong restaurant name.  Oh boy.  It's a wonder we even found the cabin.

Okay, so enough of the prelims, let's talk about the race....

First of all, I don't think we could have asked for more ideal conditions than what we had.  The temperatures were in the low 50s at the start, and it never really got too warm for us despite the threat of it reaching the 80s according to the forecast.  Sure there was some headwind here and there, but it wasn't anything too crazy.  We all rode free of a base layer, arm warmers or leg warmers, so the black BRCM kit was all we wore.  I brought a trainer believing I had to warm up before the race anticipating cold weather, but just 5 minutes on it to get my HR up was all I needed.  I probably could have skipped it, but hey, I didn't want to think I brought it for nothing.  HA

After a few pre-ride picture taking, some last minute BIO breaks, the team was lined up behind the timing mat ready to go.  I saw only one team start off before us (the Descenders B team according to the announcement), so we were anxious to go knowing that there wouldn't be too many cyclists on the road to work around.  Once we were given the signal to go, we got in our line in the following order:  me, Todd, Shannon and Galen.  This would be the order that we would use for most of the ride, but there was a slight change some time on the way back where Galen and Shannon exchanged places.  I'm not really sure why, but it was equally effective.

Our plan was to rotate every 90 seconds as best as we could and manage our pace according to our power output rather than speed.  This proved to be very effective on our training rides, so we decided to stick to this plan.  We started off putting down a little more power than I expected, but I figured since it was a race, I would just go with it.  I just hoped it wouldn't be something any of us would pay for later on.  There were also some surges of speed on occasion due to the excitement of racing, but the necessary corrections were eventually made and it ended up being pretty smooth after.  All of us had corrections to be made, so you know you have a good team when everyone would be receptive to doing what it takes to get it done right.

Everything was going good on the way out where we stayed pretty tight and everyone was pulling strong.  After we got to the 78 and onto San Felipe Road headed toward the turnaround point, Galen had been rubbing his left leg some and Shannon mentioned how he thought his legs were starting to tighten up.  I ended up pushing to the front to relieve Todd and give them both an extra bit of rest thinking that maybe Todd and I could rotate a little to give them some reprieve until they can recover enough to continue at pace.  When I was prepared to rotate back in after rolling out, I received confirmation from both Shannon and Galen that they were okay and reluctantly rolled all the way to the back again allowing them back in the rotation.  Without even skipping a beat, they jumped back into the rotation as though nothing was ever bothering them.  What's more amazing was that they continued to do so even all the way back without ever bringing up any problems again.  That's not to say they weren't feeling anything, but the epitome of BAM is rule #5 and they definitely did that.  Shannon was even thinking of getting some water at the turnaround point, but because their set up wasn't where it was feasible to do so quickly, he just turned around with us and we were off for the last 50.

Wanna hear more about BAM?  How about if I tell you how despite the pain these guys were feeling heading toward the 50 mile mark, we broke all sorts of personal records heading back.  After talking about the race after, there wasn't one of us who didn't doubt ourselves as to whether we could keep up with the others.  You wouldn't think it though by looking at any one of us since everyone had their game face on.  Shannon had even asked me at one point during the ride how I felt, and I told him I felt good.  However, had he asked me if I thought I was going to be able to keep up the whole time, I'm not sure how I would have answered that question.  All I knew was I was going to deal with it one pull at a time, one mile at a time, and one minute at a time.  I did zone out at several points though and think to myself how amazing these guys were and that I would do everything within my power to not let them down all the way to the end of the race.

25 miles out, Shannon called out to change the rotation times to 60 seconds and I knew then that that would be the game changer where power management wasn't as important as heart management.  And when I say heart management, I'm not talking heart rate either.  I'm talking about how much heart do we have to go on beyond our means.  The shorter rotation times meant pushing harder for shorter pulls and ultimately shorter rest times.  It was ON!  While this was never discussed as being a part of our plan, everyone conformed immediately and we picked it up more.

When we got to the Sweeney Pass climb,  I think we all wondered whether we would be able to keep up with one another.  Shannon got his usual jump on this climb while Galen, Todd and I just stuck with one another pretty much riding side by side for a good portion of the climb.  We were able to get up to Shannon close to the top and crested perfectly with all of us lined up together ready to blow it out for the rest of the way back.

We definitely picked it up knowing that the rest of the way back was mostly downhill, but it wasn't until we saw this familiar tall figure on the side of the road taking pictures of us and cheering us on.  It was S-Gary!!!  Once we realized who he was, you would have thought that everyone was injected with pure adrenalin as it got absolutely ridiculous after that.  After passing Gary, he would get back in his car, go past us, and get setup and take more pictures down the road.  It was such a big boost every time we'd see him (probably a total of 4x or so) that we kept going faster and faster.  After all was said and done, we KOM'd the last ~9 miles averaging 29 mph!  Thanks, Gary!   Driving out to do what he did was BAM through and through, and if you need proof he has a sense of humor, here you go:

Very funny!

Now arriving at the finish, we couldn't wait to hear what our official time was but we knew based on our Garmin data that we definitely crushed our old time.  We just wanted to know what our official time was based on the time chip.  At first, we were told our time was 4:37 where we definitely beat last year's best time easily. This was a little surprising to us given that we were showing 22 mph averages on our Garmin with an elapsed time of 4:31.  Ultimately, our official time was adjusted to 4:33, which again still befuddles us given all of our Garmins were way under this.  Despite this, we were all very happy with our results and know that Strava tells no lies where 4:31 is truly what we did.  This beat our best record by over 8 minutes!  We also took down last year's team record by a good 7 minutes as well, so we couldn't ask for more.

While it would have been icing on the cake to have taken it all for the day, the best team time put in was by a new team from San Diego who did it in 4:19.  The team was definitely legit and consisted of members who have resumes consisting of winning Breathless Agony (twice), having Strava KOMs in endless number of pages, and ride 200-300 miles a week average for starters.  Hell, even the wife of one of the racers puts in more miles per week than me, so talk about legit.  Kudos to them for sure for showing us what racers of their caliber can do.   We shared a beer with them to congratulate them for their outstanding effort.  Skinny G, what he goes by on Strava, was under 21 though, so he rightfully declined.

The after party continued from the parking lot back to the cabin, and truly this is what we all look forward to in these events.  It was truly an epic beerfest and one that had me tapping out early.  I'm pretty sure some pictures may surface involving fruit while I was passed out on a chair, but we'll just have to let them speak for themselves when they do.

Thanks to Vin, Mitchell and Adrian for coming out and joining us as their support was equally appreciated.  They had a good ride also and came in not too long after we did working together as a team.  Adrian's comment for the weekend was wondering whether Obamacare paid for taint reconstruction, which Todd requested make it on the blog, so there you go....

Shannon, Todd, Galen - I can't thank you guys enough for the race.  I know I can be a pain in the ass with some things, so your tolerance of me is as equally appreciated as your amazing efforts during the race.  I never doubted for a moment that you wouldn't reveal the BAM in you, and I just hope I was able to enough to help in the race as well.  If you guys ever want to do this again, all I can say is...find someone else!  HA HA.   Love you guys!

Editorial note:  Looks like the official times were corrected and reflect what our Garmins told us all along.   Thanks, Jim!

Pictures courtesy of S-Gary:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/35824599@N05/sets/72157640167275704/

Lunch Ride - Although Pacelines weren't Pretty, the Ride Was a Beautiful Thing

Strava:  http://www.strava.com/activities/106827703

Attendees:  Todd, Vince, Noah, Mitchell, Vin, Hiroshi, Peter, David and Jaffe

With the Stagecoach this weekend, I decided it would be a good time to have a "taper" ride and called out a jersey day asking people to come out to show their support for the team.  We actually had a pretty good sized outing with Peter, David and even Noah (yes, Noah) coming out to join us and give a proper send off to what will likely be 4.5 hours of nut busting suffering this Saturday.  Everyone was also wearing Team BRCM gear, so riding with everyone representing was definitely a beautiful thing.

As I mentioned above, I had asked for a taper pace, which was supposed to be moderate and with everyone being able to keep up.  However, something about drawing larger numbers tend to get some people a little "excited," for lack of a better word, so it was probably still a little quicker than I would have preferred.  Nonetheless, the pace was actually based on just about everyone rotating to the front and taking a turn, so all I would do when rolling up was hold it.  Now it wasn't the prettiest paceline when heading out through Back Bay, and by pretty I mean efficient, but it was effective to keep us all together to the end and up to PCH.

On PCH, I noticed David was off, but Peter confirmed that he was doing his own thing after Back Bay since he had to get back early.  The pace was actually pretty hot on PCH leading toward Avocado, where I dropped back to ensure I provided Peter with some wind coverage to keep him/us close to the group.  What happened to the moderate pace, people?  HA

Making our way to Ocean, we had to take a detour due to a road closure, which took us over a bridge that bypassed the little kicker hill that would tend to rile the BAMmers.  Cool.  Even as we're making our way toward Poppy and PCH, it was still a pretty good clip we were moving, so I guess so much for enjoying the "scenery."

When about to get back on PCH, we got caught at the light and I was actually surprised people waited.  There was still a little accordion effect after we did get going, so I had to tempo up a little more gradually to keep Peter in the draft.  There was definitely some separation between us and the rest of the guys, but it wasn't too much where we still got to make it to NPC together.

Starting up NPC was a little hairy due to some cross traffic with a cyclist running a red as he proceeded straight while we had the light to cross.  The funny thing is he yelled at us for getting in front of him.  Todd, Noah, Mitchell and Vince got going first while I decided to get some off-the-seat action on my road bike that I haven't ridden in probably almost  1.5 months. Boy, I missed my Cervelo.  At the top, Todd had gotten there first (so much for taper) to regroup.  We couldn't see Peter anywhere down the hill after the majority arrived, so we took off.  Noah got his usually headstart down the hill, and Vince followed also not wanting the rest time announcing that he's not in taper mode.  The rest of us followed shortly. Vince was not to be seen anymore after that.

I had chosen that time to get a little more intimate with my Cervelo, so I just managed my pace and enjoyed the bike on the descent and subsequently on Bonita Canyon as well.  I was behind everyone on Bonita Canyon, but I was fortunate enough to catch everyone at the light on McArthur.  When we got going, I decided to take the front to keep it interesting, but NOW no one was interested in latching on.  However, when we got to the bottom of the Condo, I was certain the plan was to go straight.  I was corrected by Hiroshi, who was the one who planned the tail end of the ride from the corner, that we were suppose to go up the Condo over to University.  From the confusion, we all stalled out at the corner and basically had to stop to discuss the finale.  When we finally decided to go up the Condo, Todd tried to shift gears from a stand still which didn't play out to his advantage.  He ended up rolling over to his side onto the group but keeping his bike from obtaining any damage whatsoever.  While it must have looked funny to anyone observing from their cars, what they probably wouldn't realize was the Velominati rules dictate that it's all about the bike and keeping it from getting damaged is the priority.  Of course, after he brushed himself off and we got going again, I couldn't help but warn him of the next time we were coming to a stop by calling it out...loud.

Hiroshi had taken off up the hill ahead of us despite Todd being on the road near death and got to the top first Cantador-style.  Oh the things we do for a KOM....

We all rolled over to California together where during the ascent, Noah was exhibiting more of his climbing prowess as he did up NPC and led the group all the way to the top.   Kudos.

It was a warm one out there for sure, but the company and the support definitely made up for it.  Now I just have to look forward to Saturday and representing for this good group of guys.  Thanks everyone for coming out!

The Pre-Race TTT Training Finale - Smooth Like Butter

Strava:  http://www.strava.com/activities/105629666

The Weather
I don't think you can ask for more ideal conditions for SC TTT than with the weather we had for this ride.  Looking at the forecast, it's probably going to be comparable to next week's conditions with a temperature range between 47-70+.   We can only hope for the same wind conditions (i.e. nearly non-existent).  Everyone dressed accordingly representing the new black where we all had shorts on, shorty gloves, arm warmers and a base layer only. 

The Course
We started from BJ's in Irvine and headed toward Live Oak by way of Alton and Santa Margarita.  We headed through the canyon, down the bike paths toward Back Bay, on PCH to the 133, and back up to Irvine Blvd by way of Barranca and Alton.  The challenge with this course wasn't as much the hills as it was stop lights we kept hitting along with all the bike and pedestrian traffic we hit on the bike trails.  Hell, we even saw Noah (representing BRCM black too...woohoo) on the bike trail on his Cervelo, which just goes to show just how many people were actually out there.  We even had to skipped dropping down into Back Bay since there was so many people riding slowly making for hazardous conditions that we chose to avoid. 

The Ride
We haven't ridden as a team for a while now, so I think we all wondered how we were going to be together on this week before the race.   Personally, I knew everyone would step up to the challenge for the race, but it is always good to see how it would actually play out.  As expected, Todd, Shannon and Galen came out to get the job done in typical BAM fashion.  We talked about how we were going to do the rotations beforehand, called out what we needed to to keep the group working well together, and rotated equally with everyone providing solid pulls throughout.  Were we perfect?   No, but we were definitely a lot more refined than we had been in past rides where everyone feels very confident going into next week's race.  It's scary when these guys are confident.

Although we did our best to be careful as we were on the bike trails and by avoiding Back Bay, there was still a little near crash between Shannon and Todd as we rode though the bike trail beside the mobile home park.  A couple of dogs looked like they were being separated by their owners just after one of the blind corners, so that caused Shannon and Todd to make contact as they slowed to try and avoid them.  Fortunately, both were able to keep their bikes upright and ride away from it unscathed.  For this reason, we chose not to hit the bike trails on the way back as originally planned. 

We stopped for a quick water refill at the Chevron on the corner of Bayside and Jamboree.  While we were sitting there taking a little break, an elderly man on a bike with aero bars on it looked at us and asked if we were professionals.  As he directed the question to me, I of course responded with "No, we just look good."   I'm sure seeing us four together all in black with our aero helmets, etc., it must look intimidating especially when we pass people on the roads.  One thing to note about this elderly gentleman who asked was how Todd said he smelled like reefer.   I guess he was out riding to pick up some munchies.

We finished with a ~21.8 average for this ride, which is fast but I know would have been a lot faster had the traffic conditions been more ideal.  Also, considering the elevation we completed yesterday is comparable for the whole of the SC route, the descent for the last ~20 miles added to this would have only meant even a faster average overall.  As next week's goal is to simply to beat our best time, I think we're on target to do so.   Stay tuned for next week's blog for sure....

Go Team BRCM!