Well, this was an interesting day. Over to Robert's house via Capilla Rd climb, where he was running late. I was riding on my new Campy wheels (more on this later). We met up with Gideon on the way and rode together over to the 4S Target. It was cool at the start, but I ditched my jacket and long-fingered gloves in Ray's car. A big group, 17 riders at the start: me, Robert, Gideon, Jed, Ray, Perse, Zac, Audrey, Arnold, Andy, James, Jamil, Kamal, Mohammed, Al (first time for me riding with him, more on him later), Charlie, and Mer. We decided to ride down Three Witches rather than come back up it. So it was out Camino del Sur, where Jamil and Kamal got ahead on the first little climb before the run. I put in a big effort to catch and pass them before the turn. Down into Fairbanks Ranch, where it was cold enough on the downhill and in the flats for me to wish I'd kept my warmer gloves. Pace line on the flats, then we turned onto El Camino Real and then onto Via de la Valle. All the way to the 101 on this road, where we had a short break just at the turn. Then it was a ride along the coast to La Costa Ave to regroup there. There were a lot of riders on the road, and right before this stop another rider slowed down and touched wheels with the rider behind her, causing him to almost crash, which would likely have taken me down as well. So, I got lucky there. My bike had been making a lot of noise, so at this stop I found out that I had a lot of play in my cassette. Kept riding though. We waited for the others and heard that Audrey had hit her calf against one of the pylons by the bike lane on the 101, giving her quite a scare but not any significant injury. So she and Robert turned around there and rode back to the Leucadia 7-Eleven while most of the rest of us kept on. Around this time, I think Al and Andy turned around to shorten their ride. We rode up to Poinsettia Ln and turned around there, heading back to the rest stop for a long (too long) break. After we started up, the group got pretty split up, and we heard later that Robert, Audrey, and maybe Mohammed turned to shorten the ride by heading back up Three Witches. Andy and Al were already headed back too. The rest, spread out, rode back. Around Solana Beach, Gideon pointed out Revolution Cycles, so he and I rode back to it and I was able to get another spacer ring for my rear cassette, borrow their spline wrench, and tighten the cassette down really well, no more noise or movement. Was great after that fix. We rode back, collected some of the others along the way, and headed through Del Mar to Carmel Valley Rd. Over to the turnoff to the 56 bike path, where we heard that James had had a flat. He was running tubular tires, so it was going to take more time. I rode back to help out, and Kamal and Jamil were there as well. Around this time, I heard from Kamal that Al had experienced shortness of breath and chest pains, but it wasn't clear what was going on. I sent the others a text for them to continue and we would meet them at the end, and we rode at a slower pace up the bike trail to Camino del Sur. There, most of the remaining riders were waiting, since Andy had headed back to get his car and come pick up Al's bike. Al had been taken by the ambulance to the hospital, where I heard later that he had a heart attack and was operated on. He was in ICU as of this posting. On the way back via Camino del Sur, I tried to stay with the lead riders and had some success, but my legs were telling me there wasn't much left. Still, it was me, Ray, and Zac who broke away from the others on the little climb by Del Sur. I tried to hang onto their wheels but just didn't have enough left. So I came into the parking lot maybe a minute or so behind them. Right quad was sore, not really cramping but feeling like it had been slightly pulled. So I took it slow on the ride home from there, taking RB Rd down to W Bernardo Dr and home via that route. Legs were sore later, and I was tired but recovered pretty quickly. New wheels are really awesome, especially after I had such good luck getting my rear cassette fixed on the ride!
Avg speed = 17.1 mph. Total mileage = 57.9 mi
Avg heartrate = 126 bpm
Total elevation gain = 2500'
