Another Friday with the Psycho-lists...
Was it humid today? After the ride I took a nice cold shower, but continued to sweat beginning immediately afterward. I always roll my eyes when people complain about high temperatures during the summer months. I mean, what do you expect? I guess you know what I did just a few seconds ago.
Now, it may sound funny, but I never knew there were so many hills in the Covina Hills. Normally if I want to climb, I head up to the mountains. Of course it is a different type of climbing - long and steady, versus a series of short punchy ones. Today's ride was all about the latter, and started off with Bloody Esperanza. After you have done Esperanza you feel either exhausted and want more, or exhausted and want to keep things relatively flat. That's when you are riding solo; the group ride doesn't come with options so, more climbing it was. Luckily, the next climb was the easy grade of San Dimas Canyon.
Ride leader Phil, had a surprise stashed away in his jersey pocket, and he sprung it on us next - in the Covina Hills. Things started off familiar enough - Via Verde, or what is commonly known as mile hill. We only went half way though, before turning off for a series of energy sapping rollers. It was up, then down, then up, and up, then down again, then back up, and up. You get the idea, the kind of route where it is difficult if not impossible to find and maintain any kind of rhythm. The ups are never enough to exhaust you, but at the same time, the downs are never long enough to let you recover. You suffer on, and it builds in your legs, but you don't care, because you are in the group. You are chasing, then leading, then chasing again, and there is nothing else you would rather be doing. By the time we made one final right hand turn and the last wall loomed above us there wasn't a person in the bunch with kind words for Phil. Most kept the curses to themselves; some couldn't hold back, and let him have it.
By the time we made it over to our Classic Coffee stop in Glendora, I think it was earned. The stop in fact seemed longer than normal - I even had time to go back for seconds. The rest of the ride was pretty typical - someone had to make the stretch of Bonita back into Claremont fast and, well, no one could let that challenge go unanswered, so a chase was the obvious outcome. It was a perfect ending, and four hours later my legs are still tingling in recovery mode.
Now, it may sound funny, but I never knew there were so many hills in the Covina Hills. Normally if I want to climb, I head up to the mountains. Of course it is a different type of climbing - long and steady, versus a series of short punchy ones. Today's ride was all about the latter, and started off with Bloody Esperanza. After you have done Esperanza you feel either exhausted and want more, or exhausted and want to keep things relatively flat. That's when you are riding solo; the group ride doesn't come with options so, more climbing it was. Luckily, the next climb was the easy grade of San Dimas Canyon.
i had no extra energy to spare for photos today, so the three shown here, were all taken at the turn around in San Dimas Canyon by Trish Mayo. now the question is, why am i the only one not standing up?
Ride leader Phil, had a surprise stashed away in his jersey pocket, and he sprung it on us next - in the Covina Hills. Things started off familiar enough - Via Verde, or what is commonly known as mile hill. We only went half way though, before turning off for a series of energy sapping rollers. It was up, then down, then up, and up, then down again, then back up, and up. You get the idea, the kind of route where it is difficult if not impossible to find and maintain any kind of rhythm. The ups are never enough to exhaust you, but at the same time, the downs are never long enough to let you recover. You suffer on, and it builds in your legs, but you don't care, because you are in the group. You are chasing, then leading, then chasing again, and there is nothing else you would rather be doing. By the time we made one final right hand turn and the last wall loomed above us there wasn't a person in the bunch with kind words for Phil. Most kept the curses to themselves; some couldn't hold back, and let him have it.
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