Some day I'm gonna get in a ride that doesn't have so much wind. 🤣 Good to chat with Paul again. Don't see him much anymore since I don't ride the Santa Ana River Trail much anymore but always good to see Paul, and George. I think I saw Fazi. But no turtles, no Ron &Dixie, no Alyce just wind. 😄 Solo, just me and my USA 💀 buddy. Earned my salt stained gloves today.
I got lazy this morning and almost put off the ride till tomorrow. But I ate spaghetti 🍝 last night and didn't want to waste my carbs. 😄
Remind me to tell you about the naked girl, cyclist in the parking lot. 😲 Oh yeah, as soon as I drove up, I noticed a guy and a gal ending their ride making their way to their cars. The dude was parked nose to nose style near me but about 6 cars down. The gal was parked away from me and almost directly in front of me.
She looked over towards the guy and saw he was busy with his packing up his things. So she slipped off her shorts facing me. 😲 She slipped them off standing next to her car, the driver's door. She slipped them off then reached in her car for another pair to put on. Uh ok! I was in disbelief, so casual but I guess she didn't think to look into my windshield noticing that I was there. I parked then sat in my truck arranging my things that I would be taking out with me, like my GoPro case etc. But hey, I got a free show ha ha ha! I'm guessing she was more proud of her front side than the back. I was a little shocked with the free show but at least she was well trimmed. 🌳
A few minutes later Paul arrived. Had a pretty good chat as always. Did turn out to be a little longer than I expected but we had a good time talking about a lot of stuff. Always good to chat with Paul but once I got started, it was getting late and the wind would show it's ugly cycling face ha ha ha!
On the road but pretty cool. I stopped at Edna Park to refill. When I was getting ready to go, I saw some dude go by on a sweet looking bike. Down in the aerobars, looked like he was doing well so I had no intentions of trying to catch him. Nowadays, I've been just riding getting in my exercise. Nothing aggressive.
He looked fast so I just admired the bike and wheels. But later near the soccer fields south of Edna Park, I ended up catching him. I rolled by him hoping he wouldn't take my wheel, I just like to ride. So I rolled by getting about 20 yards ahead, I would guess. I just kept my same pace figuring he fell back but sure enough, a minute or two later, he rolls up on my side. I saw something in my peripheral, it was him. At this point, I knew he was going to try to race me or take my wheel if I went ahead again. So I leaned over putting my glove to my tire to brush some debris I just rode through seeing he kept me there hanging on my side.
When I wiped my tire, he asked if I had a flat then I explained I was just wiping debris from my tire. SO I had good reason to slow and let him pull away so that I could do my own ride. Big guy, about my age so good for him.
He pulled away but kept looking back ha ha ha! Uh-oh, could this be game on? I didn't want to catch him because like so many other times, I know the other rider is going to suck my wheel and I work alone nowadays. So I held back approaching Moon Park, 5 miles from the coast. He kept looking back and I was about 130 HR so I know I was calm and relaxed, not using too much energy and feeling rested. But he kept looking back, expecting me to get caught up in the game ha ha ha!
He started looking kind of nervous and when we hit the downhill tunnel at Moon Park, he went down into his aerobars and seemed to be trying to crank it up. OKAAAAAAYYYYY! You got my interest now. So I picked it up a bit, 140 HR app. Usually at 140, I start catching people but not an all out effort. I think my max is supposed to be 157 but I have had it higher.
So I stayed close and relaxed at 140'ish. Then we were near the steep little climb and watching him do the double dip earlier, I expected that he was going to fade on the steep ramp. Sure enough, we hit the steep ramp and he stood up trying to keep his pace. I remained seated but applying pressure to my pedals and sure enough, SEE YA!
I rolled right by him and put a good gap rather quickly. I stayed down in the drops hoping to match his aerobar speed so that he could not catch me or latch onto my wheel. It worked, he fell back but I kept the pressure holding about 145 figuring if I could catch him at 140, 145 would be even more pressure on him. So I stayed down and felt rather good heading into the stiff headwind. I kept the pressure on to the coast, a good 5 miles. When I got to the wooden bridge, crossing I noticed he was really far back, barely coming up the ramp into view. I crossed then went back down into the drops to keep the pressure on. Thought I saw him trying to come back but turns out it was about 4 e-bikes. Now I see on my Strava that I was running my HR at about 155 at this point. Surprisingly, the e-bikes didn't catch me till I crossed under PCH. So I guess I was going pretty good.
Once at the rest stop, the dude rolled up shortly after. I was wondering if he would pull up into the same rest stop area. He went around the back. Maybe the restrooms on that side were locked as he rolled around the north side then back around to the south. He finally rolled up into the rest area but across the way. SWEET bike! Fat ballooning looking deep carbon rims. SWEET! But again, like David and I were talking about the other day, it ain't the bike. His rig was far sweeter than my old 1997 Canni.
He didn't look at me but later found the water on my end was broke so I had to step on over to that side to fill my bottles. He walked up right after me so I mentioned the headwind. He said ,"yeah, we hit the headwind then you took off and no way could I keep up!". Well that's cool. Usually if I play games with someone and I leave them behind, they come up with a few excuse why they couldn't keep up. I think one guy even brought a note from his mother ha ha ha! But every time I get involved with a little fun race and win, the other dude is always sick or had major surgery so it was nice that this dude just flat out admitted he couldn't keep up. So I just told him that I was trying to keep my average into the wind and seemed I was falling back so I had to lift the pace. Actually I was trying to smoke him though, for having to pass me back and looking back at me like I was racing. OK, I turned it into a race ha ha ha!
What else can a dude ask for, win a little fun time race and see a nekkid chick ha ha ha!
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