Sunday August 9, 2009 Training Ride

I'm luck enough to have made the cut to 10 in the Scott & BR Cycling Challenge. Today was the Pine Valley training ride and I had a day of the drops. My buddy Ross Craft joined the ride as my guest. I've known Ross for about 6 years now. We've ridden a lot together and I always refer to him as "Il Falco", a reference to his fearless descents. We ended up riding with what I think was Group 1, although I intended to ride with Group 2. After the descent on Old Hwy 80 we started the climb back up to Mount Laguna on Kitchen Creek Road. While never terribly steep, it is a relentless climb that just seems to be never ending. Ross and I rode together and chatted and we finally got to the tree line which was nice. After a welcomed SAG stop, we continued climbing up to Mount Laguna on Sunrise Hwy. The pace quickened on the descents and I couldn't keep up with the accelerations and got dropped by the group. I finally caught Ross's group who had stopped because a couple of non-QMDC riders had crashed and as it turned out right in front of Ross who was able to avoid it. We rode with Track Coach Lisa's group to a store by Lake Cuyamaca where we regrouped. I dropped off the back during the descent down Hwy 79 to Hwy 80. Let me say, it's never a fun experience to get dropped. First my ego hurt then I started feeling vulnerable riding Hwy 79 solo. Ross was nice enough to stop before Pine Valley and I joined him for the return. We then met Scott Kaplan, "Antartic" Mike and some other QMDC riders at Frosty Burgers for some shakes which was a nice ending to the day. We've all (or at least most of us) been dropped on a ride at some point in time. It's humbling, but if you don't get too down, you can appreciate the beauty of the landscape and enjoy doing what you love... riding your bike.

As an aside, upon returning to San Diego, I took my bike over to Moment Cycle Sport for a tune-up as I was having problems with a derailleur that was being less than cooperative. Moment's a great bike shop and have a knowledgeable and energetic staff. If you need cycling or triathlon gear, or a new bike, I highly recommend them.