Against my better judgement

Alistair was invited to ride with Marcus and the Junior team in Pleasanton this morning. Although I was determined to take it easy today, I ended up driving him there and then riding with the group. Needless to say, the junior team did not show, only Marcus did and we ended up riding with the Darryl's group and a few other Livermore Valley folks. We started the ride at Darryl's home on Foothill Oaks.

A flat 45 miler that took 2:30 to complete with two "hotspots." I did not intend to sprint and that was a good thing. At the first hotspot, which started at the junction of Greenville and Tesla in Livermore, a determined and anxious-to-win cyclist collided with me near the top of the short climb and almost took me out. I decided to hang back a little as the group was going to wait at the 580 underpass in any case. That went pretty well and I got some hard riding in -without the safety hazard of a nervous pack.

Then we went across Vasco to May School, North Livermore and Highland for another hotspot. Before we even got going on that one, on a straight flat stretch there was a major crash. I narrowly avoided mayhem but it was enough to convince me to sit out the second "sprint" of the day as well. Again some hard chasing at a safe distance. We stopped at the Firehouse on Tassajara and Alistair had a problem with his bottom bracket. Something "sticky" made it hard for him to pedal. It turned out to be temporary.

We rode back to Pleasanton, narrowly avoiding a third incident. The group stopped at the downtown coffee shop but I rode back to the start with Marcus and Alistair. It was 11:45 by then and we packed up the van and went home.

45 miles, 1,700 calories, 231W NP, 18.5 mph average. Tested my front HED trispoke wheel.