Wrapping up 2013 for Team BRCM

Strava:  http://www.strava.com/activities/103062355

It's been a while since I've blogged about the team, but that's mostly because I've been doing mostly solo rides during the last 2 weeks of the year.  Who wants to read about my solo rides, right?  I did get out with Adrian on the 12-21 where we did an 80 miler together going down to Carlsbad and back, but other than that it's been mostly solo rides.

My ride down to Carlsbad and back with Adrian was rather interesting.  Adrian came along for the ride while I got some TT training in, so the plan was that he was going to stay behind me for most if not all of the ride.  I was perfectly fine with it given I was on my TT bike while he was on his road bike albeit with aero bars installed.  My plan was to manage my power so that I can translate that to when I work with the team for our race in January.  I figure if I don't drop Adrian at any point given I'm on my TT bike, I'm doing okay. This worked out great to the half way point where we stayed together and managed a 20.8 average on the way down.  This was despite some headwind we experienced on the way.   On the way back, I felt the tail wind behind us, so I knew it was going to be a fast return trip.  We did stop to get Adrian some Coke at a gas station some where in Oceanside, but after that it was just a straight shot home.  He managed to stay on for most of the way back, which was no easy feat since we were likely doing 23+ mph average on the way back.  He only dropped a couple times but not by much, and in the end we finished the 80 miler with a 22 mph avg (21.9 if you want to believe Strava).   I thought it was rather impressive of Adrian to stay as long as he did at that pace, but I assured him that given that he was, he's definitely set for the Stagecoach in January. 

I did get some solo rides out after that, but the notable one was my solo TT down to San Diego and back for a makeshift century trainer.  I had two guys latch on and stay in my draft for a bit ask me what I was training for, so I told them about the TTT in Ocotillo.  They were rather impressed at the pace I was holding and wished me luck, but what they didn't notice was how I was a little uneasy about saying I'm training for a TTT whereas I didn't know what to say if they had asked where the rest of the team was given I was solo.  Thankfully, that never came up and they just enjoyed sitting in the draft behind me.  One guy pulled ahead from a stop light that we were sitting in only to experience the ridiculous headwind that I was pushing through on the way back.  It didn't take long before I caught and passed him only to have him jump back on my draft.  It was definitely a wicked headwind, so I got pretty beat up where I had to do a lot more active recovery than I wanted just to get back.  I was hoping to do a solo sub-5 elapsed time century, but there were too many lights and too much wind to make that possible.  In the end, I only managed a 20.4 mph average with a move time a few minutes under 5.  Good enough I guess.

While I touched on the subject of solo TT training for a TTT race in January, I will say that I'm sure the other guys are doing what they need to do to get the job done.  It reminds me of a management class I took where they gave us a personality test and showed that despite different approaches to a common goal, people still get it done.  I think with the mentality of the guys on the team, I have no doubt that we'll put in a good showing at the race.  I just need to worry about myself and make sure I'm able to contribute as much as I can to the team.  So there you have it. 

Looking back at 2013, I will say I don't think we've done as many events as we've done in the past, but that's probably mostly my fault given I wasn't able to participate as much.  I hope that changes for 2014, but I do think I need to find a way to excite the others to want to do more on the bike to represent the team.  For me, it has and will always be about the team.  I wear my BRCM jerseys pretty much of the time (unless Lisa falls behind in laundry - ahem) because they mean something to me.  They show that you can take some guys who like to ride and turn them into ones people recognize as legit riders.  Isn't that what it's all about? 

Happy New Year, and here's to hoping for more to come in 2014!

TTTraining with Todd - Centurus Interruptus

Strava:  http://www.strava.com/activities/100203879

With a couple days on the spin bike followed by 3 good days of riding (Friday was supposed to be a spinner but there were some sprint sections we hit that I felt going into this ride), I admittedly was a little worried about training with Todd on our planned century-ish ride.  Knowing he had backed off on Friday opting to skip the lunch ride, even more so.  With only two of us, there wouldn't be as much time in the draft as opposed to riding with three or four, but I guess in the grand scheme of things, it's best to train under less than optimal conditions since we live in an unperfect world.  We'll only get stronger from it.

Arriving at The Ranch in Ladera Ranch just after 6:30 a.m., the less desirable conditions continued.  Not only was it only 41 degrees upon my arrival, but the winds were blowing pretty good too.  You could see the branches on the trees going sideways, so I knew we would be in for a challenging day.  Arm warmers, compression long sleeves, shoe covers, and my hydration pack base layer all accompanied the kit, as I figured it would be better to start warm vs. cold...especially since Todd was riding over from his house where he would likely already be warmed up upon his arrival.  When he arrived, he was similarly prepared for the cold temps.  Little did we both know it would warm up pretty good only a quarter of the route out.

When we started off, I immediately noticed I wasn't getting any power readings, so I called out to Todd to stop since this has now become an invaluable tool during these rides.  I had set my Garmin to my BMC on Friday's ride, so I had to set it back to my Felt in order to get the power readings (the Power Tap is only associated with that bike).  Once I got this changed, I hit reset and we were off.

When riding with Todd only, we typically have the rotations be more intuitive than timed as this has worked so well for us in the past.  Of course, this wouldn't be the case during the race but it works great to stay together for the whole ride and also keep a great overall pace.  Plus, Todd is a master at setting up the pace up the steeper hills that it doesn't make sense to not take advantage of this while I offer my contributions elsewhere.  Believe me when I say though, that letting Todd lead up the hill doesn't really make it any easier for me.  His pace usually has me gasping at the top, so to think I could push up and help during the climb would likely only cause us to get separated.

We worked together going up Antonio, and I led us onto the initial climb up Live Oak.  However, once Todd took the front, I told him I would hold him out for the rest, and he was more than agreeable to it.  It was all I could do to stay with him, and when it pitched up near the top, he had gapped me a little only for me to latch back on by the bottom just before the climb to Cooks.

Todd led us up that hill too, but I was better able to stay on his wheel for that climb.  Once we got to the top of the second crest, I took the front to lead us through the canyon.  The problem, however, was that the winds really kicked up once we got in the canyons so the descent was pretty hairy making it dangerous to be wheel-to-wheel.  As Todd gave me space, I'd sit up to let him ride back up to me once the winds settled so I can offer him some wind protection and let him recover more from the climbs.  Todd still pushed up during some point during the descent, but I passed him and asked him to save it for the climbs, which he was agreeable to as well.

We had a pretty good pace going through the canyon, and I was able to find a good rhythm when I would hold the front.  The winds were blowing us all over the road though, so it was quite unnerving to be on the aeros and have the bike shift suddenly due to the heavy gusts.  This did cause us to check up at some places, but better safe than sorry.  Todd led us up Dump to finish up the canyons and I led us down to Jamboree where I believe we were at a ~21 average by then despite the Antonio, Live Oak, Cook's and Dump climbs .  We were definitely on track for a good overall pace for the day.

Since Vince was going to try and meet us at the end of Back Bay to tag along for a bit, our pace would have gotten us there within the two hours from our start time given it was about 40 miles away.  Our route was suppose to take us over Jamboree and then onto the bike trail from Portola.  However, as we got on the bike trail and began descending, we were met with a young lady who was waving her arms to stop us at a coned off section.  It turns out there was some sort of running event going on, which reserved the entire bike trail and required us to go back up and find a different way down to PCH.  I didn't mind telling the volunteer, however, that it would have been nice had they posted a sign at the top of the bike trail to let people know.

With the winds blowing pretty good still and debris all over the road, Todd and I talked about how we wanted to get to Back Bay.  We also decided that going back through the canyons would probably not be the safest thing given all the trouble we had keeping the bikes on the shoulder.  At this point, we opted to take Portola to Portola Springs, head down toward Irvine Boulevard, and ultimately take Alton and Barranca back to the bike trail heading over to BB.  We would consider revising the route further as needed based on mileage, but we would likely find a different way back to the finish bypassing the canyon.

When we were on Alton and Barranca, we seemed to hit just about every stop light, which was incredibly annoying.  We would get a good pace going and then have to stop and start over and over where I kept thinking we'll never make it down to Back Bay on time as a result.  While the plan was to go all the way to the Harvard bike trail opening from Barranca, we had enough stopping and starting and opted to jump on the bike trail at Laguna Canyon instead.  The only thing that would slow us up at that point would be the wet pavement here and there and the occasional pedestrian traffic, but it was definitely better than hitting all the stop lights.

On the bike trail after Jeffrey heading toward BB,  I started having some trouble shifting when I was behind Todd.  I started to drop off as I tried desperately to be able to shift to a taller gear in the back and I called out to Todd, but he couldn't hear me.  Sometimes, the trick was to shift to a shorter gear first on my Vision shifters, and then it would shift down.  This, however, didn't work and finally had me where I was completely crossed up and stuck.  Todd had kept going, but eventually ended up turning around when he realized I wasn't behind him where we met at crossing on Creek Road just where the Del Taco is.  At this point, I knew my ride was done as my shifter just didn't work anymore. It turned out that a spring seemed to have come off, and there would not have been any way to remedy this on the road.  I think it's fortunately that it broke down in Irvine where Lisa was nearby.  I can't imagine what it would have been like if this happened during the race or a training ride out there.  Needless to say, I think it's time for a shifter upgrade.  The Shimano DA shifters are on order.

I think we were at a 21.5/21.6 mph average pace at that point, but it dropped down a tick or two based on the spinning I had to do when crossed up.  In the end, I had to abandon the ride at ~44 miles in.  I felt bad that I couldn't finish with Todd, but Todd's a trooper and got it done without me as expected.   I guess I'll have to settle for the shorter mileage this weekend and let the honey-dos supplement my training regimen instead.  Nice job out there, Todd.  We'll get a good one in next week for sure. 

TTTeam Escort to Las Pulgas En Route to San Diego

Strava:  http://www.strava.com/activities/99338418

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get a ride in this morning, but opted to ride down to San Diego for my in-laws birthday.  As soon as I got up, I could tell it would be one helluva cold ride this morning feeling the coldness even within the confines of my home.  Stepping out into the garage to gather some things, it really hit me how cold it was and all I kept thinking of was that scene in Dumb & Dumber where they climbed up the mountains on a scooter with snots frozen snots where I wondered if I would look like that upon my arrival.

I had planned to ride down alone, but thankfully Todd and Shannon accommodated and created a route where they could get in some partial miles with me during their century TT trainer today.  They would start in Ladera and swing by my pad and then escort me down to Las Pulgas while we worked on rotations.  Sweet!  It's always more fun to suffer...I mean ride with team mates.

Promptly, Todd and Shannon arrived just in time for a 7 a.m. departure and I did my best to mask how I was freezing my ass off.  I had donned 3 layers on top (long sleeve compression base, hydration pack base, and my jersey) and opted to wear leg warmers rather than my compression pants underneath my bib (way more comfortable for the taint...yay).   Full gloves, shoe covers, and a head cover finished out the ensemble and I was good to go.  Todd and Shannon were also pretty geared up for the weather as well with Shannon even wearing a face cover.  With how my face felt on the first part of the ride, I was definitely wishing I had one too.  While it didn't take long to warm up, my hands stayed pretty frozen for half of the ride.

Working with Todd and Shannon, it was another outing where we once again got to work on our rotations.  I know I was doing my best to be mindful of power output (I'm REALLY becoming a fan of having a Power Tap) where I would try to hold a certain wattage during my pulls, but doing so is a little more difficult given the conditions.  Lack of wind or tail wind, hills, etc., made it hard to keep the group together, so I think I need to get better at figuring this out for sure if we're going to succeed in January.  The irony though is I sometimes think I'm not working hard enough despite the power readings, so this is something I'll have to overcome in the next few weeks.

It was great working with the guys all the way to Las Pulgas, so admittedly I was bummed to think that I was on my own after that.  I was bummed both because I wouldn't get the miles they were getting in plus I wouldn't get to hang with them after.  It's what I live for cycling-wise.

The good thing about being on my own after separating from the others was that I was now forced to work more and not have any more "breaks" within a rotation, which hopefully would keep me warm.  I had brought more fluids than I would normally take to San Diego on my solo rides down because I wanted the weight for the training, but it also came in handy as I had fluids/calories throughout the whole ride and never once even felt like popping.

I kept a pretty good clip as I made my way through North San Diego and had a few riders latch on for a little bit.  I was being very good about monitoring my power output on the way down, which was again...awesome, but as soon as someone latched on, I didn't mind kicking it up a bit just to test out their grit.  Unfortunately, the 3 who did latch on weren't too gritty.  I popped them off both on straights and up hills, so I didn't discriminate.  HA HA.  One guy passed me at one point right after the light going up into downtown Encinitas like he was trying to prove something, so I returned the favor just as soon as we got on the straight by Swamis.  BAM!

I still had a lot of fluids left in my hydration pack, so I took a big swig just before making my way up Mira Mesa Boulevard heading toward my in-laws house.  It sucked that I kept hitting light after light, but despite this was able to achieve PRs over times when I was on a road bike.  After getting through the lights where it flattened out some, I opened it up to let it all go before I arrived at my in-laws, which rendered me two top 10 hardware.  That was fun, but also a little scary as the roads up there definitely had some debris from the rain.

Looking at the other guys Strava, it looks like they had a good route and I hope a good ride too.  Thanks to Todd and Shannon for the "escort" down to Las Pulgas, and I'm already looking forward to the next trainer with them for sure.

Cheers!

FiTT 20K and Sunday TT Trainer with Shannon

Strava:  http://www.strava.com/activities/97690829 (FiTT)

Strava:  http://www.strava.com/activities/98195599 (TT Trainer with Shannon)

It was a surprise to wake up on Friday and see rain drops on our cars since the last forecast beforehand was 0% chance.  Lisa came with me to the race and was also surprised to see the rain start falling just before we were getting ready to go.  We chanced it anyway, and fortunately it ended up just holding off raining until just after the racing stopped.  The grounds were a little wet here and there, which made the race somewhat interesting, but I never really felt it was dangerous.

It was a tough race this time around where it was difficult to achieve the same speeds as the last time out.   There was some winds out there that was just really tough to cut through.  The last half of the course was fast the last time out, but this time it was hard to keep up the pace on it.  I was expecting it and thought I could push through on the first part of the course expecting the second half to be faster, so I was thrown off my pace after the first lap and struggled through the next two.  I had to keep reminding myself I was racing and just pushed on every bit I could, but by the end, my time was higher and thus had a lower average speed.  Ironically, my power output was higher, so it was that kind of day.

I ended up having the 7th best time overall, but I joined the 45+ class this time around where 3 of them got top 5 knocking me off for a podium spot.  Had I stuck to Cat4/5, I would have gotten 2nd.  That's what I get for jumping around in classes.  I'm happy with the outcome though since everyone else who raced was indicating that they had difficulty out there too.   Here are a couple pics:

Today's trainer was just Shannon and me and the plan was to do a hundred miles.  Shannon came up with the route and after I mapped it out, we altered it slightly since it came up short.  We thought we'd get a full 100, but in the end it came up to just 95 miles...95 miles of torturous misery.

I'm thankful Shannon was patient with me in the beginning because I just couldn't get any real rhythm down.  I was pretty much all over the place in terms of power, and I even ended up blowing myself up a little after one of the early climbs out of Mission Viejo.  It was ugly.  Shannon definitely managed his output better than me, but I finally found my tempo some time after Laguna Beach.  Up to that point though, I had recurring thoughts of just wanting to turn around and go home. 

We had a really good pace heading out to Long Beach and back toward SART.  No one would even latch on due to our pace, and we were even passing guys on TT bikes. 

When we got on SART, that's when things got ugly.  There was a solid headwind the WHOLE way up and it literally beat us down where we just couldn't wait to get off of it.  Carrying speeds over 20 was work, but we did what we could working together running 2 minute intervals as we had been doing all day. 

Getting on Taft, we expected the winds to let up, but they never really did.  In fact, even going through the canyon was a bear and if Shannon didn't thankfully wait for me after Dump where I couldn't hold his pace and dropped off, it would have been painful working the canyons alone.   We stayed together the rest of the way, and was just hauling ass after Cook's wanting to get back and be done.  We were both on the verge of cramping by the end, but we both just made it back to our cars without doing so. 

95 miles at a 21.8 mph pace for two guys in that wind...legit.  Definitely worthy of the Oggi's nourishment we sought after.  It was a tough day on the saddle but definitely one we hope to benefit from as we lead up to the race.  Shannon and I don't know of any other group who's training like this for the race, so it'll be interesting to see how we measure up in January.  Personally, I think we're gonna rock it. 

Thanks for inviting me out and for all the work, Shannon! 

Lunch Rides - Two For the Price of One

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/activities/97078894 (Yesterday) http://app.strava.com/activities/97250138 (today)

I've been a little pressed for time lately where I often only get to write at night, but I'm probably going to be blogging less for a while so I can spend the evening enjoying the family.  I'll throw this one out there though and cover my ride from yesterday and today.  I'll try and make time to write about the weekend ones though.

Yesterday was a TT trainer with just Todd and me.  Todd wanted to get a little more hill training, so we ended up doing the full Turtle Rock ring along with a climb up NPC.  We saw Shannon at the gym, but he had his road bike and had planned to do his own thing (133 loop).

As you may know, it's rather challenging to ride with Todd on the TT bike.  He definitely does a lot of the work up front on the hills and willingly at that.  I try to do what I can to help, but it seems pointless at times where all I can do is return the favor on the flats and downhills.  I'll still take turns up front on some climbs, but the ratio is definitely not even.  We did well working with one another as we did the Ring and I tried to save enough to stay with him on NPC, but I broke off after a misshift and he just continued to increase the gap after that.  I was glad he waited for me around the corner on NPC.  From that point on, I was determined to do more work, so I worked my tail off after that.  He later gave me kudos for the pulls on San Joaquin and BB.  Yay.

We decided to climb up Jamboree to finish, and Todd had started a little ahead of me and led for a bit.  I ended up finding a good gear to be in along with a rhythm/cadence I can hold that allowed me to make my way back up to him.  When I saw that I still had more and opted to pass Todd, who I thought was topped out, he stood up and made his way past me where all I could do was watch.  Nice!

It was a good training ride where we managed a 22 average (Strava knocked me down a couple ticks), which isn't bad considering all the climbing involved.

For today's ride, we still had a fairly good-sized crew out for a holiday week that included me, Todd, Adrian, Jeremy, Mitchell and Vin.  Everyone represented BRCM jerseys, with two wearing the new black, 2 wearing the OG black, 1 in red, and one in yellow (this was a jersey Adrian got from our Marketing that has BRCM on it, but was left over from one of our customers).  Nice to see all BRCM though.

It was a good ride today where everyone was doing what they can when they could.   That's also about as nice to see as everyone representing BRCM.  All of us managed to stay together for at least half of the ride, which was cool.  On the climb up San Joaquin toward NPC was when there was some separation among us.

Jeremy was the first to break away and had gotten a pretty sizeable gap over the rest of us.  Everyone lined up behind Todd, including me, as he worked his way toward and past Jeremy about half way up.  At first, I thought everyone else had stayed with us as we kept climbing, but toward the top, I saw that only Mitchell was able to hang on.  I tried to make my way past Todd near the top, but you guys know Todd's sentiment would be "ain't nobody got time for that."  He  accelerated where I was relegated to #2 again (after I asked Mitchell to let me back in).

The 3 of us got on NPC, and I took turns with Todd as we descended toward Pelican.  We saw a guy from BRCM out there too, so he jumped on behind us after we made our way past him.

Todd got a little worked on the descent, but I coasted mostly in a tuck to keep at speed where after we rounded Pelican, I had momentum where I made my way past Todd on the climb and even gapped him.  However, I knew that would only be temporary, so I managed my pace to where I could latch on again once he passed me.  As we headed up the final climb, Todd had just a little gap on me, but I found that "rhythm" again where I was able to get by him again.  Can you say poke the bear?  Poke, Poke.  As before, Todd passed me again before the top and held the front to lead all the way up to the top of Vista.  The gap between us would shrink and grow the whole time, but ultimately Todd made it to the top a few seconds ahead of me.  What I probably failed to mention earlier though was how Todd rode already this morning, so I'm certain I'd have been left behind much further had that not been the case.

We waited to regroup at the top, and took off after Vin and Mitchell arrived seeing no one else with them.  Jeremy had to get back and opted to skip Vista and there was just no sign of Adrian.

The descent down Ridge Park was fun but there was a car that looked like it may make a left turn in front of us where that made some check up.  Thankfully, it didn't.

The descent down San Joaquin was fun as well where I thought Todd and I would do all the leading, but at one point as I was getting ready to jump behind Todd after rotating out, Vin was there followed by Mitchell, so they were game to help keep the pace up as well.  This was also seen on McArthur where both Mitchell and Vin took the front after Todd cranking away.  I followed Vin and led toward the Bonita Canyon intersection where Todd came by before to help us make the green light.  I had to dig really deep just to be able to latch on, but I noticed I was the only one as we made our way through the intersection.

We finished up on Bison with just the two of us broken away, but I did see Vin not too far away behind us.  I opted to pick up the pace at that point taking the front and giving Todd a lead out to finish first to California.

Good work out there, gents!  You've earned yourself a whole turkey leg after today's ride.   

TTT Trainer - Finally, a Full Team Trainer!

Strava:  http://www.strava.com/activities/96716610

Admittedly, I was excited to find out last week that we were all finally going to make it out together as a team.  Despite having ridden with Todd previously as a 2 man team,  Shannon and Galen two weeks prior and Todd and Shannon last week, I thought those rides wouldn't be as significant as when we train all together...at least in terms of how we'll perform for January's race.  I've been saying all along how important seat time is, but for a TTT, time together is what it will take to find the right "chemistry" among us.  If you  believe that everyone just being trained up and strong will be enough to do so, you've got another thought coming.

We decided to do a route Todd did a couple weeks ago that started from his house, headed through Live Oak, went through the Canyon 1.5 times (2 out, 1 back), down to the BB via the bike trail, PCH to Laguna Beach, up the 133, and back via Alton. The route ended up being 108 miles or so, but as you'll see from my Strava, I had to cut it short because I wanted to get back to watch my daughter's final league soccer game.  It was definitely a lot of miles as well as a lot of climbing (more than the actual Stagecoach), so I knew I had essentially signed up to ride on the Team BRCM pain train. 

We weren't sure we were going to make it out given the wet weather at the end of the week, but early in the morning, we got an e-mail from Todd giving the all clear.  It ended up actually being drier than our ride down to Torrey Pines the week before, but it was also a bit colder.  Galen ran into a little traffic on the way down, which delayed our start time a little, but that allowed it to warm up a little from the 48 degrees that would have been the temp if we started at the planned 6:45 a.m.  We still all donned full pants and arm warmers or a long sleeve base layer, which proved to be perfect for the length of the ride.


Now I could talk about the whole ride mile per mile, I think I'll spare you of the details and only go over the highlights.  

We probably started out a little faster than we should have (think lunch ride-ish), especially since it was so hilly in the beginning, but it's just another learning point for us to correct on the next ride.

We had a couple riders try and mix it up with us, but it was nice to see that everyone pretty much stayed with the agenda of training as a team.  In fact, if anyone was out of line, it may have actually been me when riders were ahead of us.  Todd kept me in check though, which is what he or any of the other is supposed to do.

The crosswinds and headwinds were a little rough through the canyon even with four of us working together.

I don't think we covered how we were going to do rotations as a group from the beginning, so I think for about 3/4 of the ride I didn't really know what we were doing.  HAHA.  We pretty much did what we did, so this was something we'll be working on as well.

When we finished the 133, Shannon had gotten a flat so I opted at this point to separate and find the shortest way back to Todd's house.   I think I failed in that regard and ended up climbing more than I expected. 

The guys finished out the ride and had a couple beers after, which I definitely could have used given the spasms and cramping I was experiencing trying to watch my daughter's game.

Overall, I think this was good for us as it sets the baseline for what we can do as a team of four.  I expect we will continue to improve upon every outing since all of us are driven to do so.  We have the right tools to get the job done for sure, but we've got fine tuning to do along the way.  I'm already looking forward to the next one.  Go team BRCM!

Lunch Ride - A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/activities/96066036

Weather-wise, you couldn't ask for a more perfect day to ride.  Cool temperature, moderate winds, overcast/cloudy...perfect. It's how I like it anyway.  I half expected to see more people come out, but today we had Shannon, Todd, Adrian, Vin, Mitchell and Jaffe come out along with John L., who decided to join us as he would do so on occasion.  He always makes the hills interesting when he does.

In today's route, I chose to start it off a little flatter to give people a better chance to hang on and not drop right away.  This doesn't necessarily guarantee that they will, mind you, but Todd and Shannon seemed to be playing nice today and not pushing max power from the start.  Todd even checked up at one point after gapping the group, so he definitely had his team player hat on today...especially with how often he would pull up to the front.  Kudos!

Now don't get me wrong, the pace was still pretty high as we headed toward Jeffrey where I heard Vin and Jaffe mention how they felt like dropping off despite not being in the front rotation.  John, Adrian and Mitchell rotated up to the front as well to help keep the pace up along with Todd, Shannon and me.  However, we all made it together to Laguna Canyon and up to Quail Hill.  Shannon did amp it up on the bike trail making it impossible for me to pass where I thought that may have caused some separation, but it didn't.

When we were approaching Knollcrest from Quail Hill, we saw another rider cross the street and start the climb ahead of us.  Todd led the climb and helped reel the guy in just after we got on Pine Needles.  Then, out of the blue, Vin decided he would charge up the hill and definitely had some good where I thought if he held it, he would do well.  However, he never managed to pass Todd, Shannon and John, and ended up not having anything left for Luminuous.  I was behind him and had exchanged places with the other rider on the climb, but on Luminuous, I took off past both of them coming in just behind Todd and Shannon.

We regrouped at the top and had Adrian turn around and join us as we were already descending.  Adrian ended up taking the lead as we headed down toward and onto Quail Hill.  It was a little hairy having that size group go through the turnabout, but we were fortunate and didn't encounter any traffic in the circle.

On the Shady climb, Todd once again led the climb and John stayed beside him while I tried to maintain their pace seated on the climb.  It was only at the top when they accelerated toward the crest that I fell off and had Shannon pass me as well to join the two ahead of me.  When I crested, it took some effort to be able to catch them but I was able to do so just after the first bridge.  Rather than going by the gates, we took the long way and the four of us continued to exchange spots all the way to the top of Shady.

When we got to the top, I had rolled out and was surprised to see that everyone else had joined back up again.  Of course, Strava tells no lies where it seems they opted for the shortcut way by the gate to do so.  Todd offered the lead out for anyone wanting to sprint, so Shannon was the first to do so as I watched from the back.  Everyone else followed after but no one was able to catch Shannon.

On the climb up Turtle Ridge, I started the climb off mostly because Todd, and I believe Shannon too, were held up at the light since they had gone straight and were crossing from the crosswalk.  When we got to the left turn, Todd and John took the front and I was trailing them for a bit only to lose their pace about midway up.  Shannon had been behind me, but he turned it on and started to charge and ended up cresting with the two others ahead of me.  I tried turning it on toward the end, but just couldn't get enough steam to keep close to the others.  When I headed down, I made the right turn and saw that the light was green on Bonita Canyon where the three ahead started sprinting to make the light.  I tried to haul ass too, but fell short of making the light by probably no more than 1-2 seconds.  I probably could have gone through as the cars hadn't even started rolling yet, but better safe than sorry.

Mitchell had made a U-turn early on Summit and was able to roll up behind me followed by Vin.  We ended up having to sit through 2 cycles since no one hit the crosswalk light and no cars came to activate the green light.

Now with the three ahead of us gone and out of sight, I figured I would end up being held out at the front, but to my welcomed surprise, Mitchell took the front just after me allowing me to rotate to the back.  Vin, Jaffe and Adrian did some work here too, but at the top just before descending toward McArthur, we had to stop at the light.  I thought I'd lead us out over to the Condo, but at one point, Adrian passed me while on his aero bars with seemingly some bad intentions.  I was able to reel him in and latch on as he pulled as through the McArthur light and was seeing if he would continue pulling us all the way to the condo.  Can you say "wishful thinking?"

Of course, with him slowing down, I had no choice but to pass or go backwards on Ford.  We got slowed at the top, which allowed the rest to come up just behind us before hitting the Condo where I tried to encourage the others to go ahead...no takers.  Thus, when I hit the turn and started the climb, I took off up the hill.  I could see that someone was behind me for a portion of the hill, but when I checked again near the top, no one.

I stayed ahead of the guys on Bison and kept looking back hoping that they would try to launch a sneak attack for a sprint to California, but no one seemed interested and thus had a lonely finish.

I didn't map out this ride today, so I didn't realize it was a 23+ mile route (sorry, gents).  It was a good ride with a little bit of everything thrown in and just good teamwork overall.  Love it.  Thanks for coming out and the workout!