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.
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.
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