Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/571933279
Attendees: Shannon, Vince, Hiroshi, Mitchell, Adrian, Jaffe, Steve M., me and Saurabh
As with fight club, there are rules one should know when riding with this crew:
Attendees: Shannon, Vince, Hiroshi, Mitchell, Adrian, Jaffe, Steve M., me and Saurabh
As with fight club, there are rules one should know when riding with this crew:
- If you're new to the ride, expect that everyone is going to try and drop you.
- If you haven't ridden with this group for a while, expect that everyone is going to try and drop you.
- If you ride with this crew often, expect that everyone is going to try and drop you.
While all of the above are true, 1 and 2 are ESPECIALLY true. And when you COMBINE 1 and 2 on the same ride, add "...as soon as possible." The bottom line here is that these boys have a serious passion for pain and anyone else who dares to join them will be collateral damage. Period.
Now I didn't think I would want to ride with these guys anytime soon given my other personal pursuits, but you can't help but miss them. Call is masochism, but looking at their Strava posts gave me an itch that only other alphas can scratch. I just didn't expect them to use a steel rake while doing so.
Saurabh came out to join today after hearing about rides on Tuesday and Thursdays. As we met him while congregating outside the gym waiting to depart, I felt obligated to welcome him to the ride as well as set his expectations as stated above. What's funny is that I'm now considered a "visitor," but I guess old habits are hard to break. Saurabh said he would try to draft as much as possible, but I guess that didn't work out too well given he dropped even before the first underpass on the bike trail. At least he was warned. I hope he continues to come out, but he'll have to eventually drop the rearview mirror (Yes, Vince...I used to wear one too) and get some real pedals vs. cages. Just some words of advise from an old timer....
With Hiroshi giving me fair warning that everyone was getting faster and faster before I came out, I knew exactly what I had to do: Make like a caboose and constantly ask my Maker not to let me get unhinged. Sure as shit, Hiroshi was right. These guys were ridiculous today! They were definitely applying rule #2 above, which required me to apply rule #5 but from a different set of rules. If you have to ask....
What was great about today's ride was that everyone was taking turns up front except me. I was the cycling 'coxswain' directing those rotating out from the front to latch on to the guy in front of me. I'm not used to this group allowing me to do this, so being a visitor does have its perks. Some definitely did more work than others, but from my view, everyone pushed up at some point. Awesome! As a result, they were killin' it...and me in the process. To see all the Strava bling people received, including myself, just shows they were out for blood.
Here are the results from what I could see in the challenges I created for this route:
KOMs
Top of Bike Trail at Portola - Vince with Steve M. nipping at his heels...or was it the other way around?
Top of Orchard Hills - Vince with Shannon in hot pursuit and making a pass down the hill.
Top of California - Shannon with a powerful breakaway leaving Vince to chase and me to feel old
Sprint
To California - Repeat of Bike Trail at Portola where once again I couldn't tell for sure.
Now that I've had a taste of the crew's "alpha-ness," I think I'm good for another month (or more) before riding with this crew again. I'll have to do some covert training in preparation for it as I'll bet they'll even get faster. I'm sure of this.
Thanks for letting me tag along today, gents! I really appreciate the workout albeit being more than 500 more calories I prefer to burn for my cardio. Looking forward to the next time.
