Woke up early with a surprise <>. I got ready for the bike ride, I had planned an inland route featuring the first Highland Valley Rd climb. It was quite foggy when I left home, also cool enough to wear my long-sleeve Bisikleta jersey. Through the neighborhood and then through the short version of the 4S Ranch neighborhood, I was the second to get to the starting point. The first was a new rider, Mark, who had ridden with Nel and Aaron last Saturday and came to join us for this ride. The other riders trickled in, slowly. Gio and Jed were late, Jed A. showed up thinking he had a flat tire and that took time to figure out, and Kamal overslept and still got to the starting point before we left. Not great. Here were the riders on this day: Ray, Eric, Charlie, Connor (first time riding on the road with a group), Zac, Joey, Rob, Nel, Kamal, Mark, Jed, Jed A., Cam, and Gio. We finally got rolling, and I led out on my planned route. East on Camino del Sur and Camino del Norte to Bernardo Center Dr, turning left and riding up to W Bernardo Dr, where we took another left. We took this road all the way down to Lake Hodges, it was a little chilly on the downhills, then over the bridge to Pomerado Rd and a left on Highland Valley Rd. We started a pace line after a little while, and it quickly got whittled down to about 5 riders. Jed A. was helping me lead out, and he led me right onto the first climb. I put in a big effort and got to the top just a couple of seconds slower than my fastest time, with Zac hot on my heels (he started later and had a faster time, a PR for him). I waited at the top for the others to show up, and Mark was last by quite a margin. He and I rode up to the waiting group, then we continued on to Bandy Canyon Rd. The downhill section was fun, but I was continuing to push hard, staying out in front the whole way to the 78. Jed A. wasn't too far back for a while, then I gapped him. We gathered up again at this turn and rode single file along the 78, which doesn't have a bike lane or even much of a paved shoulder. Over to the climb out of the valley, where I led out and had a couple of riders, Zac and Connor, on my wheel. Near the top, Zac passed me and I didn't have anything left to respond. I did set a PR on this climb (5:12, 275 W, 160 bpm). We waited at the top again for the others to show up, then continued over to Summit Dr, where we turned right and took this gradual climb to the top of Idaho Ave. The others rode ahead while I waited for everybody to make the turn, Rob offered here to sweep, which was a plus. We rode downhill to Citrus Ave and turned right, taking it all the way over to El Norte Pkwy. I think I led the whole way over, and I was starting to feel it a little bit. Left on El Norte Pkwy, riding down to Broadway (Eric and I traded leads), where we stopped for our break. Some of the riders got donuts, some may have gotten coffee, others just hung around and chatted until it was time to saddle up again. Up to Centre City Pkwy, where we turned left and rode back through Escondido. To Citracado Pkwy, where we jogged over to Escondido Blvd and took it down to the path through Kit Carson Park that dropped us behind the mall. We rode through the mall parking lot by On the Border and over to the entrance to the bike path leading to the pedestrian bridge over Lake Hodges. I pushed hard on the little climb up to the park, Jed A. was right there with me, then we rode until turning onto Aguamiel Rd and waiting for the others to make the turn as well. Rob, Mark, and Zac didn't make the turn, Rob had stopped to change his derailleur battery, so I missed them. But they got back on route not too long after. We climbed past our house, and on the climb up to Duenda Rd Cam and I were going all out. From here, we followed the normal straight route back to the starting point. I waited at the turn onto RB Rd for everybody to get there, and Rob and Mark were last. Gideon and Jhonar passed us not too long after that, on their way over to the starting point to chat with the riders at the finish. I put in another fairly big effort to try and catch the other riders who had gotten ahead, and I caught the middle group. This was a hard riding day for me but successful. Nobody crashed or got (too) lost, and we all started and finished at the same location. I rode home via the RB Rd and W Bernardo Dr route. Legs were fine at the end, no cramping but some soreness and a lot of tiredness.
Avg speed = 16.8 mph. Total mileage = 50.0 mi
Bisikleta route avg speed = 17.1 mph
Avg power = 152 W. Weighted avg power = 178 W
Total elevation gain = 2780'
Avg heartrate = 132 bpm
Got home and had something to eat, watched a little bit of football. Other than that, it was a quiet afternoon. I worked a little bit on coding my cycling analysis program, fixed some bugs I had introduced by moving code segments around, and I created a flag to turn on or off for matching Strava segments, since this code is currently too slow. Evening was quiet as well.
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