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Today, began EARLY.

6:45am out of here. 11 degrees out, 2 degrees warmer than yesterday thankfully! We rolled up the coast to Nytro in Encinitas for the Swaumi’s Saturday Big Loop Sufferfest. The big loops is 80 miles. The ride up to Encinitas is 1:15hrs at a fairly decent pace. Add all those miles up and you’ll figure out that it was a long day in the saddle.

Failboat factor 1 – Stupid me, forgot my water bottles on the counter at our house. *EGAD!*

Coolness factor 1 – as we decended Torrey Pines, a BMW Motorcycle tucked in along side of us. Egging us on to roll in behind him. So we did! Matteo said we were ripping along at 69km/hr at the fastest point. We covered 2-3 km’s VERY quickly. Thankfully common sense got the best of us and we shut it down. The last thing we wanted to do was gas ourselves before we even got to the ride.

Failboat factor 2 – FLAT TIRE. *ugh* Teo got a flat in Solana Beach. Not far from where the ride was to begin (1 town over). Pull over, quickly swap the tube and use Co2 to get back in the road quickly. Then TT (read – hammer) our faces off so we can get to Nytro before everyone rolls out.

Coolness factor 2 – The guy at Nytro was kind enough to give me 2 of his shop bottles! How awesome. He’s a Canadian fan too!

So with 30 seconds to spare, Matteo stuffed his supplies into his jersey and I slammed my bottles in the cages and we were off.

BIG Group.

The roll out was slow, which was nice. We stayed at the front, keeping an eye on the pace. Matteo was riding like a champ. We started into the hills and within no time, the hurtlocker door was blasted open. I dangled a little, caught the lead group…. let them go again…. caught them… let them go. Frustrating. Matteo was flying!

They finally got away and then it started to shred apart. I eased up, because at this point I was in never-never land and wanted to save some gas. Settled into the second pack, and the taps were opened.

Failboat factor 3 – *POW* I hit something in the road. Then rode for a few minutes, only to have my rear tire go flat. *craptastic*  I have a tube, however Matteo has the Co2 and the pump. D’oh! So Justin passes me and says “it’s only 2 miles before it eases up”. I rip the wheel out and start replacing the tube, despite not having a pump.

Many many groups of riders pass me and ask “you ok?” to which I reply – “NEED PUMP!”

Nobody hears anything. *sigh*

Thankfully by the time one very nice Australian guy rolled along by himself, he did stop, and did have a really good pump. I was back on the road within 60 seconds. Justin called my phone to say for me to book it, because they stopped at that 2 mile point to regroup and were just starting to head out. I punched it, and managed to catch them as they caught a red light before heading back into the mountains! YES.

… and then it went up. Up and UP and UUUUP. Teo had kept with the lead group by the time we reached the summit at 3.5miles. We rode into the shadow of Palomar on narrow roads you would swear were in Europe. At the top, the lead group eased up a little. Teo, took the opportunity to pull out a cliff bar, but the group hit it again, and he was left dangling in never-never land. He saw that I wasn’t far behind, so he eased up and I rolled through when I caught him so he could finish his food.

Then, we started this CRAZY decent. I saw sign after sign after sign that looked like this:

not 74 miles, but we saw a few that were 11 miles and 17 miles! :O

Nothing I have ever encountered before. We were riding so fast, everything was a blur. Thankfully I descend well, so I tried to rest the legs as much as I could, but with every roller…. came discomfort. Discomfort really was starting to get the best of me. I was starting to hit the wall. Water only on board (as opposed to any electrolyte type replenishing drink) wasn’t cutting it. And this pace was outrageous. It felt like the cyclelogik carp loop on steroids with a side of methamphetamine – except we were in the mountains as opposed to the relatively flat environment carp offers.

Matteo and I joined a UCCyclery guy and ramped it up even more. Some crazy fast pulls along these winding roads were taking their toll on my legs. I just started to drop off the back and we came to another re-group spot, with a corner store!!!

Wow, was I a happy camper. I plowed down a big redbull, a cliff bar, and 2 ice tea with ginseng filled up the bottles. As we rolled out again, I asked some guy… “how long is it to Oceanside from this point?” He said…. “wow, uh….. 40 miles.”

FOURTY MILES?!?!?!?!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! f00kin f00k, we’re FAR!!!

I should explain – Oceanside is the point where we meet the ocean again and head back down the PCH to Encinitas, and eventually where we stay in PB. That meant, 40 miles before civilization – then another 65km’s home – and I’ve been hurting already for more than an hour.

Sweet merciful crap.

So off we go. Hammering our faces off. Descending fast, climbing fast, hurting hard. I’m swallowing it all, until I started drifting off the back. Crapola. Then a highway crossing… they had to stop, and I managed to roll through it so I made some excellent ground on the pack and eventually caught them again on one of the super windy descents.

We make it back to civilization, and then *pow* – one of the really strong guys in the group got a flat.

EVERYONE stopped for him. THANK fOOk. I pulled into a 7Eleven and bought everything I could find in 30 seconds. Bottle of regular coke (yes, I said regular coke! I needed the calories!) , more ginseng tea, vitamin water and 3 peanut butter cookies. NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM.

The second I walk out of the sev, guys are rolling out again. *jeebus, can I ever catch a break???*

BAM. It goes off like a gun again. I’m beyond broken. I manage to stick with these guys until we hit a bike path. Then the pace got even uglier. I’m thinking ….. how the hell can they go faster than we’ve been ripping along until now… yet, someone still has gas and starts punching it (((AGAIN)))

After 3-4km’s of this ungodly pace, I started cramping badly. My hamstrings are shot. Any attempt of pushing on the pedals while seated results in catastrophic pain. “I’m out”

As I watch them ride away, I can’t even begin to describe how demoralizing this is to go through. Not only do I have no idea where I am, but I’m cramping badly, I have no spare tube, no pump, and no dignity

I keep rolling along as fast as my legs will allow, which was still a fairly decent pace – but crawling compared to the group’s pace. Every person I see, I ask if the group passed them. So I knew I was on the right path. Eventually, I made it to Oceanside. At least I’ve been here before, so after confirming with a motorcycle rider at a stop light that I was on the PCH now, I started to pick the pace up a bit because I knew I was on the road home.

In Encinitas, Justin and Matteo were waiting for me. Demoralized, physically and mentally. I accepted a ride from Justin back into town. There wasn’t enough room in the car for Matteo. This killed me. I knew he was fine to ride, I knew he knew the way home as we’ve ridden that way 3x now… I just didn’t want to send him off after he killed such a difficult ride. He assured me he was fine and rode off, heading for home with my cel phone in his pocket. I would have gone with him, but it would have only slowed him down. So I stuck with my shuttle back to Mission Beach, and rode the rest of the way back to the house.

End result for the day – Matteo, 195km’s – David 165km’s.

I got home at 3, Matteo an hour 40 later. His spirits were awesome. I’m a little wrung out, but will be better once dinner digests

I can’t believe it, but at some point (nowhere to my recollection)  managed to snap a few pics.

These were taken somewhere in the hills.

and this guy with the black jersey… he’s the one who ripped the pace apart all day long. *sheesh*

At no point was it remotely warm today. hovering around 54 degrees F. We kept the vests/arms/legs on the entire 6+ hour journey.

Thankfully, we are both just tired. No smashball today

Tomorrow, I suspect we’ll ride into town and watch the last cyclocross race of the season here. What a day it’s been!!!

I should have gone with Ed. In no way, do I think riding that hard, that long at this time of the year will be of much benefit, because we’ll be on trainers at home in a few weeks. Still, it was friggin cool

d. & Teo