16 February 2008

Saturday harbor ride

It was cold and cloudy in the morning, but it was supposed to warm up in the day. There were various strategies from the riders at the start -- some dressed up, some dressed light. At 8:57, I was the first to the start, and waited a few minutes as more riders showed up. There was the usual slow procession through Capitola and Aptos, with the pack growing along the way.

The right onto San Andreas was followed by usual pace jumping up. It slowed down more than I expected on the little climb by La Selva. After that, the pace was faster than on the previous rides in which I hadn't been dropped. It seemed to me that I was hanging onto the tail end of the pack, even though I had gone by some riders early on. Perhaps the pace was just high enough to string things out. On the descent after Sunset Beach, the pace cooled off a bit, and I was able to coast at times. After the bridge, I saw two guys off the front sprinting hard for the sign. This was the first time I had been close enough to the front to even see the sprint, though they still were way ahead of me.

Then came the slow ride into Watsonville. We exchanged waves with farm workers in the fields to the right. The group split off for the different routes. I took the Hazel Dell option as usual. The pace was pretty relaxed, and the group stayed together up the first steep bit up Mt Madonna and down the initial part of Hazel Dell. After Green Valley, the road started climbing, and I eventually had to drop off the back. I still beat my previous best time by 30 seconds, though. Then, I headed into Corralitos and took a short break.

After the break, I headed solo up Hames, then Day Valley, Valencia, and Trout Gulch back to Soquel. At one point on Soquel, police had flares on the road, blocking the right lane. There were some people standing around on the sidewalk. It was not obvious to me what had happened. I eventually went by on the left lane. It was sunny and fairly warm as I headed home.