25 April 2009

Saturday harbor ride

It was a little chilly and overcast when I started out. There was a small group at the start, and pack was relatively small. The pace on San Andreas was relatively slow. At one point, somewhere after Sunset, there was a slow tractor on the right of the road.

Going up Mt Madonna was a pretty typical sized group. I stayed with the lead group up the steep part and the initial Hazel Dell climb before falling back. I could see the riders falling off the back of the lead group ahead. Approaching the summit, 3 riders went around me and I caught on. I got rotated to the lead a little before the summit and a little into the descent, I made my way back to the back. I took another pull on the twists of Browns Valley, then rotated back. I took one more pull, and it was windy. When I dropped back, I was too wiped out to catch back on, even though the group had grown to about 10 riders, and rolled into Corralitos about 10 seconds behind.

On Hames, I got into a group of 5 or so, but after Pleasant Valley, I had to fall back. Since I was too far behind to stay with them on Freedom, I took Day Valley and Valencia solo, then Soquel back home. There was a mild headwind for the remainder of the ride.