Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/244681160
With Todd indicating on Wednesday he wasn't going to be able to make it out, I took the opportunity to choose his least favorite group ride route...Portola. Vince proposed the addition of Orchard Hills, which I've never done before in a lunch ride, so I was game. I was hoping it would lure the mighty Shannon out given this is one of his training grounds, but no luck probably because of Dina's birthday the night before.
Joining us and again to be praised for consistency this year was Gary and Vince, and Sean made it out for his 3rd consecutive ride. We should make a contest of this seeing who gets out on the Tuesday/Thursday lunch rides the most for 2015. Don't be surprised if I don't count and bring this up by this year's end.
When we started on California, Vince lead the pack early with Gary just behind while the rest of us had a nice warm-up pace heading down toward the bike trail. Vince just made the light before University, but Gary opted to not roll through it for the possibility that others behind him may roll through the red. As we sat at this red, we saw the light change for Vince on University, and he took off where we wondered to ourselves, "Does he really need a headstart?" HA HA
When the 4 of us got on the bike trail, Gary started us off and got a good pace going early on. I was thinking Vin was going to take off, but he stayed in the rotation and even took some pulls. When I was up front at one point, I was glad to see that Seon was even willing to push up and provide some wind coverage for the others.
When we got to the Harvard intersection, Gary pointed out a new rule: For those under 5'10" you cannot take the front and be on the drops. Thus, from that point on, I did my best to stay on the hood anytime I was up front to return the favor. I'd slip on occasion but would remember and make the correction to adhere to the new rule for the big guy. In fairness, I did try to stipulate that guys 5'10" and over cannot date Asian women but it appears no one gets my sense of humor.
As we were heading up toward Portola, we were all still rotating and everyone was doing great in keeping a solid pace. It was definitely faster than I was expecting we were going to go and probably even faster than I was wanting to. At one point, I thought I was holding the same effort level up front but looked back and saw that only Vin was behind me at that point. Since we neared Portola and with Vin having taken the front, I then opted at that time to just sit on Vin's wheel. Vin held a great pace going to the top, and even stood up to give it a little extra push at the end (not sure if he was trying to drop me or what...HA), but it was a good effort nonetheless.
To our surprise, Vince was the next to roll up behind us as I guess he took some detour to be able to regroup from the back. Seon and Gary rolled up shortly after, and off we went to Orchard Hills, or shall I say the big OH.
Given that this was my first time up OH in a while, I decided I would work to stay with Vince and give him a little riding company on the loop. Of course, he was probably a little more leary about me sitting in his draft from the last ride going up California, so it seemed he soft pedaled for a bit encouraging me to take the front as well...so I did. It's just a lunch ride anyway, right? HA HA. We seemed to gave the others with Vin not too far behind from some breakaway antics (Vince, not me) as we worked toward the top. Out of nowhere though, Vin tried to sprint by the both of us but what he probably didn't realize is that his bike makes too much noise where we both heard him coming. Admittedly, it still took some effort to latch on, but we did.
Vince had mentioned at the bottom how there was a downhill sprint that people would do to the light just before Portola, so when we crested and started heading down I thought I'd give it a go. Vince took the opportunity to train for sprints and came around and passed me just before the light. Nice work! Admittedly, it riled a little bit of the BAM in me.
After regrouping on Portola and making our way back to the bike trail, I decided I was going to pick it up a little and lead down the bike trail at a pretty decent clip. I was still on the hood, however, minding Gary's new rule. Vince eventually took the front and also held a good clip so I opted to just stay behind him and let him get some good training in in the wind. Yeah, that's it. That's the ticket.
Vince's pace was definitely more intense, but I stayed on and to my surprise, Seon was right there with us the whole time as well. We stayed together through Harvard and finally back onto the bike trail. It was when Vince got off the wooden bridge ahead of us that he took off and Seon fell victim to the accordion effect at that point that left Vince and I alone. I was going to stay with Vince to "help" him further by seeing if he wanted to sprint to California. Of course, I also held him out for really long pulls just to try and make it a little fair. HA HA. Vince did try to break me off just before the last underpass with a little sprint, but holding him out as I did enough to allow me to latch back on.
When we finally made it to the final stretch, you can tell he was trying to setup the sprint by slowing and hoping I would pass. However, looking ahead and seeing that there was traffic, we opted to just ride abreast for the remainder and also called California a cool down zone. Yes!
It was another good lunch ride with great efforts from everyone. The group continues to get stronger, so I'm thinking I just need to run more and drop all this alpha male BS. Just kidding. Thanks to everyone for making it out!
With Todd indicating on Wednesday he wasn't going to be able to make it out, I took the opportunity to choose his least favorite group ride route...Portola. Vince proposed the addition of Orchard Hills, which I've never done before in a lunch ride, so I was game. I was hoping it would lure the mighty Shannon out given this is one of his training grounds, but no luck probably because of Dina's birthday the night before.
Joining us and again to be praised for consistency this year was Gary and Vince, and Sean made it out for his 3rd consecutive ride. We should make a contest of this seeing who gets out on the Tuesday/Thursday lunch rides the most for 2015. Don't be surprised if I don't count and bring this up by this year's end.
When we started on California, Vince lead the pack early with Gary just behind while the rest of us had a nice warm-up pace heading down toward the bike trail. Vince just made the light before University, but Gary opted to not roll through it for the possibility that others behind him may roll through the red. As we sat at this red, we saw the light change for Vince on University, and he took off where we wondered to ourselves, "Does he really need a headstart?" HA HA
When the 4 of us got on the bike trail, Gary started us off and got a good pace going early on. I was thinking Vin was going to take off, but he stayed in the rotation and even took some pulls. When I was up front at one point, I was glad to see that Seon was even willing to push up and provide some wind coverage for the others.
When we got to the Harvard intersection, Gary pointed out a new rule: For those under 5'10" you cannot take the front and be on the drops. Thus, from that point on, I did my best to stay on the hood anytime I was up front to return the favor. I'd slip on occasion but would remember and make the correction to adhere to the new rule for the big guy. In fairness, I did try to stipulate that guys 5'10" and over cannot date Asian women but it appears no one gets my sense of humor.
As we were heading up toward Portola, we were all still rotating and everyone was doing great in keeping a solid pace. It was definitely faster than I was expecting we were going to go and probably even faster than I was wanting to. At one point, I thought I was holding the same effort level up front but looked back and saw that only Vin was behind me at that point. Since we neared Portola and with Vin having taken the front, I then opted at that time to just sit on Vin's wheel. Vin held a great pace going to the top, and even stood up to give it a little extra push at the end (not sure if he was trying to drop me or what...HA), but it was a good effort nonetheless.
To our surprise, Vince was the next to roll up behind us as I guess he took some detour to be able to regroup from the back. Seon and Gary rolled up shortly after, and off we went to Orchard Hills, or shall I say the big OH.
Given that this was my first time up OH in a while, I decided I would work to stay with Vince and give him a little riding company on the loop. Of course, he was probably a little more leary about me sitting in his draft from the last ride going up California, so it seemed he soft pedaled for a bit encouraging me to take the front as well...so I did. It's just a lunch ride anyway, right? HA HA. We seemed to gave the others with Vin not too far behind from some breakaway antics (Vince, not me) as we worked toward the top. Out of nowhere though, Vin tried to sprint by the both of us but what he probably didn't realize is that his bike makes too much noise where we both heard him coming. Admittedly, it still took some effort to latch on, but we did.
Vince had mentioned at the bottom how there was a downhill sprint that people would do to the light just before Portola, so when we crested and started heading down I thought I'd give it a go. Vince took the opportunity to train for sprints and came around and passed me just before the light. Nice work! Admittedly, it riled a little bit of the BAM in me.
After regrouping on Portola and making our way back to the bike trail, I decided I was going to pick it up a little and lead down the bike trail at a pretty decent clip. I was still on the hood, however, minding Gary's new rule. Vince eventually took the front and also held a good clip so I opted to just stay behind him and let him get some good training in in the wind. Yeah, that's it. That's the ticket.
Vince's pace was definitely more intense, but I stayed on and to my surprise, Seon was right there with us the whole time as well. We stayed together through Harvard and finally back onto the bike trail. It was when Vince got off the wooden bridge ahead of us that he took off and Seon fell victim to the accordion effect at that point that left Vince and I alone. I was going to stay with Vince to "help" him further by seeing if he wanted to sprint to California. Of course, I also held him out for really long pulls just to try and make it a little fair. HA HA. Vince did try to break me off just before the last underpass with a little sprint, but holding him out as I did enough to allow me to latch back on.
When we finally made it to the final stretch, you can tell he was trying to setup the sprint by slowing and hoping I would pass. However, looking ahead and seeing that there was traffic, we opted to just ride abreast for the remainder and also called California a cool down zone. Yes!
It was another good lunch ride with great efforts from everyone. The group continues to get stronger, so I'm thinking I just need to run more and drop all this alpha male BS. Just kidding. Thanks to everyone for making it out!
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