Lunch Ride - Starcrest Summit Condo Loop

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/activities/117805903

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

Highlights:

• Mitchell gave me a lecture on how running does not benefit cycling before the ride.   I disagreed then but not too sure after.
• Adrian took off and broke away initially.
• Vince caught Adrian on East Bluff but the rest of us (behind Todd) took a little longer to do so.
• I tried helping to keep pace up on Culver, but Vince took off looking to breakaway early.  
• Vince and Adrian took off up Turtle Rock early, but the rest of us patiently let Todd lead us up to them.  
• On Starcrest, Todd started to gap the rest of us, and I was making my way up ahead of the others when Vin launched a surprise attack that came out of nowhere.  He actually caught Todd, who wasn't going to let him pass at the top.  
• Vince passed me and ended up joining Todd at some point.  
• The rest of us ended up pulling Vin back into the paceline on University.  
• The guys started taking turns on the bike trail, but I took the final pull leading up and over Shady.  We saw Vince and Todd, but they were too far ahead on the climb.  
• Vin took over on the Shady bike trail, and my calves started to blow up where he, Mitchell and Jaffe left me like a used rag doll.  
• Vin commented at the light on Bonita Canyon asking if I had fallen behind because Mitchell held me out too long.   Nope...legs just couldn't hang today.
• We let Vin lead us up Summit, and I thought it would be cool to pass near the top like he did on Starcrest...mostly to just see if I could...so I did.
• We caught Vince at the light on Bonita Canyon, but Todd was long gone.  Guess Todd's competitive juices were flowing strong after the Starcrest attack.
• Adrian was with us when we started back on Bonita Canyon, so he took off right after the light and gapped the rest of us early.  Small detail:  he skipped Summit.  
• I could barely hang on, but I did take a turn pulling before dropping off in case anyone cares.
• I was able to catch up at the light before McArthur, and everyone charged the intersection believing the green would hold.  Upon our approach, however, it turned yellow so not everyone made it across.  I went with Vince, Jaffe and Mitchell.
• I was still trying to do what I could up the Condo, but Vince passed me near the top.  Small detail:  he held onto a trash truck that had turned just before us as I was riding beside it.  
• Vince was gone on Bison, so Jaffe, Mitchell and I didn't sprint.  Jaffe dropped a chain (or almost), but it couldn't possibly be because of poor maintenance.

I think I'll do my own thing tomorrow.  My legs are THRASHED!  Thanks, gents!