This was a signature ride. Drove out to Harrah's Rincon Casino and met up with the Bisikleta group to ride up the South Grade of Palomar. On this ride there were: Perse, Ray, Nel, Zac (his last ride with us before moving up to the Bay Area), his friend Keaton, Audrey, her friend Chris, Aaron, Chris Cantor, Jed, Gio, Jamil, Kamal, Cam, and Fritz. Simple route, very difficult ride. We headed out Valley Center Rd to Pala Rd, turning right. That's where the fast riders took off. Jed and I rode together for the first 3 miles or so on this road before he got ahead and I couldn't match his pace. At the turnoff to the South Grade, he kept going, while I waited for others to catch up. I ended up riding with Ray, Chris, Cam, and Fritz. We were generally together, although Chris was initially out in front. Eventually, they all passed me, as I was struggling to keep up a good cadence, my lower back was bothering me and I alternated between riding in and out of the saddle. A little more than halfway up, I got past Fritz and later passed Chris. The weather was really good for riding uphill. The climb ends before the Mile 48 marker, and I was really glad to see the others cheering us on at the top. A break at Mother's Kitchen, then Ray, Cam, Jed and I decided to ride up State Park Rd, which had a much more gentle grade and was going just fine. Then Ray had a flat, so Cam stayed with him while Jed and I kept going. We rode into the park, and then Jed and I started up Boucher Rd to the fire lookout tower. That was brutal at the start, 9-14% grade, so I was just crawling up. Eventually it lessened to 5-8%, and I made it to the top. No Jed behind me. Took a restroom break, still no Jed. A couple drove up in a pickup and told me that he had a mechanical down near the bottom. So I waited for Cam and Ray to show up, and eventually Cam did. Ray got another flat and ended up turning around. So after a short break, Cam and I rode back to Mother's Kitchen, riding the brakes down the other side of Boucher Rd and suffering (me) on the little climbing sections. Everybody was gathered at the Country Store, and after another break and a couple of pictures, we all headed down. The descent was nerve-racking with all of the switchbacks. Eventually I just followed Fritz's line down and it was fine but exhausting. Back on Pala Rd, we continued riding together and dealing with some wind gusts. Eventually, Keaton passed us. and the downhill straightened out. I was able to get past Fritz and ride behind Keaton for a while, then I eventually passed him as well, not too long before the roundabout that took us back to Valley Center Rd. The stretch from Mother's Kitchen all the way back to the casino was nearly all downhill, and it was tiring in its own right. Was glad to be done at the end, my legs held up but didn't have much left at the end. I rode the first part of the climb, 5 miles from the roundabout to the turnoff for S6, in 37:36, averaging 215 W. The South Grade climb is 6.8 miles and I rode it in 1:04:17, averaging 186 W.
Avg speed = 11.6 mph. Total mileage = 35.2 mi
Avg power = 159 W. Weighted avg power = 182 W
Total elevation gain = 5450' (!)
Avg heartrate = 121 bpm
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