Lunch Ride - El Morro NPC Vista Bonita Canyon Loop

Strava:  https://www.strava.com/activities/313776118

Attendees:  Vince, Shannon, Mitchell, Jaffe, Hiroshi and Vin

Highlights:

• True story:  I created the route and had planned to only include Pelican as part of today's climbing.  After I hit send and saw I typed Vista, I was like "WTF?!?"
• Good sized crew today and everyone representing BRCM black.  Oh yeah, baby.  
• I had my TT bike today given I had my BMC had a flat rear and my Cervelo front derailleur is not working properly.   There was talk of how I can create a big enough gap from the group to even the disadvantage on the hill.  Yeah, that didn't happen.
• We had a good pace going out and once on Back Bay, everyone started to take turns up front.
• Near the last gate, Mitchell (of all people) made a move and started sprinting (albeit sitting down...maybe it was  leadout?) causing a little sprint fest by others to the end.  
• When we were going up Jamboree to PCH, there was some of us cutting through cars as we made our way to the stop light.  I couldn't get out of my clips (keep forgetting to oil them from when it rained the other week) and had to put my hand down on a lady's Tesla to keep from falling on it after Mitchell cut in front of me.  She didn't appreciate it very much, but I said sorry.  My bad.
• On PCH, we opted to go through CDM vs. Ocean since the route was going to be long.  It was a little hairy, but we all managed to get through unscathed.
• One thing I want to point out that I observed as early as Back Bay but even more so on PCH was Jaffe's willingness to push up to the front to work.  He's really stepping up more and more, and I wanted to make sure he got some recognition for it.  Maybe it'll encourage those who are more timid to do so to do the same.  Good job, Steve!
• En route to NPC, there were some attempts at breaking away beforehand, but in the end, we all pretty much arrived together.  I had waved the guys behind me on beforehand because I didn't want to slow them down and/or break them off from the guys up front.  
• During the climb, I was certain I was going to drop but curiously I made my way past a few of the guys.  I got up to Shannon at one point, and he was talking to me encouraging to see if we should go after Vince.  I was happy to just keep my pace at that point, so I did.
• Hiroshi caught up to me and started to pass giving me kudos on my climb up with the TT bike.  It's always difficult to really appreciate kudos when the person giving it to you is passing (kinda like a backhanded compliment if you ask me), but I know Hiroshi meant well.
• I took the opportunity to jump on Hiroshi's wheel and return the favor though.  I'm sure he was just taking it easy on me.  He did end up catching me at the top again and took the lead as we made to Vista with two guys ahead of us and the rest behind.
• For the Vista climb, I knew trying to keep Hiroshi's pace was going to be challenging, so for me it was just a matter of keeping him close enough.  We saw the two guys ahead of us, but there was absolutely no chance of closing the distance.  
• When Hiroshi and I got on the false flat, I took advantage of building up speed on the TT bike before the last hill and used the momentum to pass the cycling samurai warrior half way up.  
• With exception of Vin, who just took off down the hill after he caught up, the rest of us attempted to regroup.  We waited for the others to complete the extra credit for having gotten to the top ahead of the rest of us.
• Two guys came over the horizon, and we thought it was Vince and Shannon.  It turned out it was Vince and another guy on a mountain bike.   We didn't realize this until we were already heading down the hill.  
• On my descent, I hit a bump that knocked my aero water bottle out of its carrier and had it sitting between my legs.  I was going too fast to reach down safely to get it, so I was trying desperately to slow down enough or stop so I can grab it and put it back.  It then fell between my left crank and frame where I feared it may fall down and cause me to topple or worse  yet, cause someone behind me to run it over and topple.  Fortunately, it dropped on the street with no one harmed.  I had to wait to turn around to be safe before going back up to pick it up, but I was glad Hiroshi and Shannon waited for me on NPC.  The other guys were off, and although we saw them at the bottom of NPC, waiting was just not in their vocabulary.
• The three of us rode together the rest of the way back, and I got to observe some excellent sprint action on Bison by both of the guys.  

Great workout today, friends!  Thanks for coming out!