BRCM Lunch - Be Careful What You Wish For Ride

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/activities/140774679

Attendees:  Todd, Vince, Vin, Jeremy and Jaffe
Special Guest:  Jeff Barrett (UCI Professor and GP Critter)

Highlights:

• It never fails to amaze me how in typical BAM fashion, guests bring out the best (or worst depending on how you look at it) in the team.  Not only was there virtually no warm-up (which I suppose is typical), but the pace throughout was bordering on absolute ridiculousness...especially considering the weather.  The trophies achieved pretty much sums it up.
• Speaking of the weather, the coastal route hardly provided any reprieve from the heat with the average temperature at 99 degrees.  According to Garmin Connect, the peak temperature reached 107.6 degrees.   And while the wind may not have been as bad as predicted, it was still pretty noticeable and definitely had us moving around here and there.  All around, I'd say "hellacious" would accurately describe today's conditions.
• Todd was saying as we were getting ready how he was going to pull back given the heat.  That lasted for all of a mile or so.
• Vince, Jeremy, Vin and I think even Jaffe also contributed to the maddening pace taking turns on Back Bay.  I may have taken some pulls here and there as well.  
• Jeff may not been ready to push up right away holding Vince out for a bit on Back Bay.  Then again, Vince held Todd out just before sprinting to the gate near the end.  Karma?
• I chased Vince and believe I passed him before the gate.  He still got KOM.  Karma?
• We all regrouped for the left turn to PCH, and I'm pretty sure Vince heard me miss clipping into my pedal when the light turned green.  He took off along with Todd to punish me.  Fortunately, we were able to catch up to them after a while.
• We rolled through the neighborhood all together from Avocado, but we lost the professor on the climb up Fernleaf.  
• Todd lead us all the way through Ocean and Poppy, but he got tied up behind some cars while others had gotten on the sidewalk and took off on PCH.  That's gratitude for you.  HA HA.  Todd was able to reel them in (with me and one other in tow).  
• Todd is forever the workhorse and pushed up to lead on PCH seemingly without any sign of interest from the group to relieve him.  Maybe that was just how I saw it from being hot and cranky.  I ended up pushing up to help get us to NPC where we all sat to cross together (no one took the left turn this time...nice).
• The climb up NPC was absolutely horrible.  The winds were in our face and moving my bike all around and the heat...oh the heat...had us cooking on the way up.   The pack started out all together, but it dwindled down to Todd, Jeremy, Vince and me.  Todd and Jeremy were side by side originally with me and Vince behind them, but Jeremy opted to get behind Todd first and then had me pass him seemingly like he was throwing in the towel.  He didn't, however, and the 4 of us stayed together all the way up.  I guess everyone was afraid to ride alone up that hill on this day.   I know that's what motivated me.
• We regrouped at the top with Jeff bringing up the back.  I'm just glad no one passed out in this weather.
• We made our way to San Joaquin and eventually the horseshoe, where Vince, Todd and Jeremy started pushing after making the turn.  I was behind Jaffe, who worked to close the gap, and I pushed up passed him and to the front to start working with the others to keep the pace up.  I was the last one to take a pull, or so I thought, and started pushing as hard as I could to see if we can PR or KOM the segment.  I didn't realize no one was on my wheel after a while, but I guess others had either checked up due to a car or as Todd pointed out in the locker room, Jaffe had detonated in front of him (Adrian-style) and broke up the group.  
• I rounded the corner to San Joaquin but shortly after was passed by Vince, Todd and I maybe Jeremy?  Vin was right behind me, so I made sure to let him know not to take me out on the turn.   I knew there was still Spyglass to climb, so my tactic for it is similar to the condo.  Save it on the downhill and hit it on the climb.  
•  When we made the right turn, Vince took off so Todd gave chase and I lost track of where Jeremy was at this point.  I started to sprint up the hill with the momentum and made my way past the guys.  At first, I thought I was thinking of staying on Todd's wheel, but I had momentum and kept going as a result.  I had a pretty decent gap and similar to the horseshoe, I checked up and waited for the guys.  When Vince and Todd passed me, they took off down the hill and I had to give chase knowing that if opportunity presented itself, they would leave me at the intersection.  HA HA.
• Since there was a car there, the light didn't take long to turn green and the 3 of us starting to go on San Miguel.  The next thing you know, Jeremy rounds the turn at full speed and starts to break away from us.  Nice!  I guess that's his payback for sucking down everyone else's water bottle having forgotten his.  HA HA.
• Todd started to give chase, and I thought Vince was going to be behind him, but I ended up jumping on Todd's rear wheel to help.  It was by chance that I did since Vince had gotten a flat behind us somewhere on San Miguel.  Fortunately, Vin was still behind us and stayed with Vince for the rest of their ride.  
• It took about a third of the way on McArthur after San Joaquin before we finally were able to reel Jeremy in.  Jeremy had enough of the wind on his own, and McArthur was definitely pushing some good headwind against us, so Todd and I took over for the rest of the stretch before Bonita Canyon.
• Jeremy started us off after that intersection, and lead until Bison.  I took over after and tried to make it interesting for a sprint over the 73 but Todd made his way past me no problem.  I pulled a Roberto Duran at that point and just thought "no mas."  

As part of The Weather Channel app heat advisory, it warned that people should use caution if doing strenuous activities outdoors.  So much for that with this group.  And here I really missed riding with them after almost a 3 week hiatus on lunch rides.  I guess I do need to be careful of what I wish for when it comes to this group.  They're brutal...but I love the training!  Thanks, gents!