Sunday Options: An Extraordinary Ride

the pre-ride talk

There was no sprinting for the glory of claiming another city limit sign. The only challenge at the KOM was the one each rider had within him, or her, self. In fact, if not for some perverse need to attack any significant high point on the route, I very likely would have felt a modicum of foolishness for bolting away from the group on the one big climb of the day. Speeds were at, almost, all times conversationally paced. Testosterone was kept in check, if not under lock and key. Pressure never built because the boiler never needed to be stoked.

I hung out at, or near, the back not, for once, because I had to but because I wanted to. I suspect the only times the pace pushed above the twenty mile-per-hour mark was along downgrade sections of the road or path. The occasion was the years first ride hosted by Jon Riddle (co-author of Where To Bike Los Angeles) under the auspices of the LACBC. The rides are good opportunities to meet some new folk, see some new sights, explore new routes. They take place on a monthly basis. Admittedly, except for one climb up to Monrovia Canyon Park near the end, this months' ride along the SGRT and Rio Hondo, was pretty flat. They are not all like this one - others spend most of the time in the mountains or hills and offer more challenge.

With the Spring time change approaching, opportunities for "training" rides could soon present themselves five days each week, with a sixth day of actual racing for good measure. It was nice to put aside playing the part of racer for a day, and everything that comes with that obligation, and just enjoy an ordinary ride. Now that I think about it, if those other high-paced, grovel-for-wheels-in-the-gutter rides are the more typical, the every day, that would make them the ordinary ones, and rides like this day's the exception to the rule, the extraordinary.

Jon assures me that he has a years worth of monthly rides mostly planned out awaiting finalization before making it public. For a likely preview, next month will be a variation of the famous Donut Ride in the South Bay, and May is likely to be the GMR / GRR / Mt. Baldy Loop starting in Claremont. Check the LACBC website, or my Upcoming links, for more information on future rides when it becomes available.

sharing some miles along the SGRT

blue skies with wisps of clouds

regroup at the bend

back towards home along the Rio Hondo

through Duarte along the old red line route