Lunch Ride - Did You Really Expect Me to Keep Counting?

Strava:  https://www.strava.com/activities/282315323

Attendees:  Shannon, Todd, Vin, Mitchell, Jaffe and Seon

Highlights:

• Most guys wore black team jersey, but there were a couple of whites too.  Vin showed up in a non team jersey.  SMH
• Before the ride even started, found my buckle to my right shoe had fallen off.  Rather than backing out of the ride as some may do, I suggested I'd ride in the back (if I could) hoping my shoe doesn't fall off trying to do so.  Todd claimed that was just an excuse.  Boy, what a tough crowd.
• Going down California, it looked like Todd and Shannon were already breaking away from the bunch.  Thankfully, there was a light at the bottom.
• On the bike trail and out toward Back Bay, the pace was already pretty tough and even though I just stayed in the back, it was still pretty hard to keep up.   I could feel my heel coming up, so I only had the forward and down strokes available as the two velcro fasteners held my shoe on.
• The  guys were doing more rotations on Back Bay than on the bike trail, so it was good to see Vin, Mitchell and Jaffe pushing up too.  
• There was definitely some hold outs going on, but I can't really say too much given I didn't get in the rotation.
• I think the rotation wore Jaffe and Vin out a little since  htey had dropped off just before coming out of Back Bay.  
• Seon did great keeping up for most of Back Bay but I think the pace got a little too hot after San Joaquin and he fell off slightly.  He was able to rejoin by the top of Jamboree before PCH...until they turned it up again.
• Construction, construction and more construction.  There were road closures that had us navigating through the CDM neighborhood trying to find our way onto Poppy.  
• Back on PCH, Todd and  Shannon were definitely doing the work while the rest of us just tried to have something left for the climb up NPC.
• Upon going up NPC, I hear a familiar voice and it was our buddy, Craig, who called out and said don't let them drop you like that, Rich.  HA HA
• Craig spun up to talk to Shannon for a bit, so I did to hoping I can pace someone having been toward the back at the start of the climb.  Once Craig said he'd let Shannon go, I think Shannon took that literally and decided it was time to drop everyone...so he did.  He was probably tired of the towing, so he continued on whereas the rest of us regrouped at the top.
• Todd was the first up after Shannon, and Mitchell had been on his wheel for a good portion of the climb.  Todd was admittedly happy to drop  him though given Mitchell's keen ability to ride in the draft for most of the rides.
• I started the climb off the seat, but it was just too hard to keep the resistance up due to my shoe.  I was happy to spin up and ultimately pass Mitchell on the climb.  Of course, his keen drafting ability was observed subsequently. 
• Despite having worked most of the ride, Todd continued to take the lead and do a bunch of the work up front.  On the horseshoe, Mitchell definitely held him out for a while but Todd did his thing nonetheless.  When Mitchell finally passed, it was only for a bit probably because Todd didn't want all of his work to be where he's not up front at the end.  
• Seeing that I'm still with the group at this point and it's mostly downhill, I started pushing up front once back on San Joaquin.  Finally, right?  
• When we got on McArthur, Vin had taken the front and rotated with Mitchell and Todd.  It seemed a little disorganized, so I pushed up to do what I could to help out.  
• Getting onto Bison, Todd had the lead and we hit that turn at a pretty high speed.  Scary but definitely fun at the same time.
•  Vin led us out after the last light and we were able to finish with a good pace.

Thanks for coming out, gents!  It was another great training ride at the Broadcom proving grounds.