Azusa Cyn/Pico with Mark & TC

 Good ride with TC and Mark. 2nd in a series of comeback rides for Mark. Surprised me doing so well figuring this ride is mostly a grind heading up to Azusa Cyn. And TC, he always does great and he's good looking too! 😆😄😆

Adding this: I met these guys in HS. been friends for 50 years now! 🤓

Ha, going to leave it. Mistake, no capital B. One would even wonder if I went to high school ha ha ha!

Funny though, Mark is one year older than I but I graduated a year ahead of him, in 1980. I'll let you figure that one out and no, Mark didn't flunk a grade. 😆

A video short from TC's cell. Commentary as well seeing he has a way with words. 😁

Well, the story goes is that Mark was the one who got us involved in cycling back in about 1992. I've been riding ever since consistently but Mark hasn't. Tony mostly over the years as well but breaks here and there but I think I've been the most consistent. So Mark has had plenty of time off but years ago, he was the first to do Ride Around the Bear before they wussified it.  Back when the ride would start in Redlands by the 10 fwy then go up and around to Onyx Summit. Sadly the organizers stopped it and now a new version Tour de Big Bear has taken over. Riding circles around the lake but  not like back in the day.  Yeah, I did the real version 4 times over a 10 year span, was my favorite ride. If they still did it, I would try it again . 

But Mark not having been on the bike much has not kept fit over the years and wanting to ride again, he did a few rides here and there. I invited him to do a ride last week and surprisingly he accepted. So we did a ride on SART from the train station to HB and back. He did very well. When we were close to the finish, he mentioned feeling much better than the ride attempt a week or two earlier. He and Tony made it to Moon Park then headed back. I'm not exactly sure what happened there but.... I told him that he should ride with me and I guarantee he'd have no problem finishing. 

Anybody that rides with me pretty much knows that I ride TOGETHER. 28 years with Gina and I don't think I ever once left her behind. If she got tired, I'd back off giving her a chance to recover. That's the way I ride, sadly so many don't. I can't count the times over the 28 years that I was riding with someone taking a long pull then instead of taking the front to help, they'd sprint off forcing me to close gaps which is no rest at all. Especially when the rider pops as soon as I catch up, like a minute later.

Mark had mentioned having a problem getting out on his own and some frustrations. I told no ma,, that's bull! Get you bike out there, ride with me! If you struggle or get tired, take my wheel, I'll hold a pace that allows you to recover. Again, I'm the ride together guy!

So we did on SART a couple days earlier and he did great. Even took the front when he felt good knowing that if he started to fade, he could take my wheel again to recover. Heck,, he even ended up pulling me some. When he felt good, he'd go to the front and do what he could which gave me good rest.

So I invited him and TC on this ride. I didn't expect that Mark would accept at all but again, I said RIDING TOGETHER.  Surprisingly Mark accepted so we headed up. Rode together and he actually did very well on the first section where it starts to head up. Then the dam, the 9 1nd 11% grades for about 1/3 of a mile. I know seasoned riders who will at times go around the climb riding on a dirt road rather than climb the dam ha ha ha! So I wasn't sure what he would do after that. I thought it might kill his spirits ending up in the 25 mile ride I advertised. I did think that once we got to the Santa FE nature center, he might, might think about going all the way to Azusa Cyn which is another 5 miles of a gentle grade.

We stopped at the SF nature center for a rest and refill. Didn't take much coaxing and he was ready. I was surprised but he had mentioned trying some gentle climbing so here we were and he was game. Heading up no problem which is good as I know a few others who dread the section of the trail and especially not knowing what to expect. I will say that on the flat SART trail, hundreds of bikes. On the flatter section of this trail, SGRT, hundreds of bikes. On the section to the dam, maybe 50 and at the times I ride, maybe 10. But above the dam, there are times I see 5 other riders. AND ABOVE Encanto Park to Azusa Cyn, there have been days that I have seen maybe 1 or 0 riders. Nothing tough but too many riders will find there way out of any kind of climbing ha ha ha!

But Mark went all the way no problem. I was surprised but not surprised knowing what he has done on the bike in the past. So we headed down and the wind is always there but this time, not really too bad.  So it made the ride more pleasurable and good thing Mark got to see this side before we do it again because it's almost always so windy that going down can be tougher than the gentle climb going up.

34 miles, I think is Mark's longest ride in a long time so it was a goal achieved type ride. I did see some fatigue on the last mile or so but I slowed down and rode along so that it was nothing close to discouraging. So even at the end of the ride, he was still looking pretty good and the mission, set it up for a little more mileage in the future. But heck, I told him, ride with me and you'll get there!

Gotta say good job Mark!

10% grade with one hand! 😆 I was actually trying to get my camera out of my pocket on the top section so I could snap a pic of Mark coming up the Dam Climb. But, I was too late. By the time I got it out, he was over the top....Couple of stills from TC's video.