Summer Riding

Wow, if you live in San Diego you had a wonderful summer day today.

We hit the road around 9:30 and changed our route from heading into the inland hills to going coastal. Eric Bowen, @fittecheric, and I were joined by first time SDVeloSocial rider Bobby Griffith, @bobbygriffith. Get to know this guy, he is one of the most interesting guys I have had the chance to meet in some time. He is a former local who has been in Texas, but hasn’t gone to the dark side, so don’t hold that against him. I’m not going to tell you about the things I found most interesting about him, you’ll have to ride with him yourself.

We started at Ryan Bros Coffee in San Marcos, SD Velo Social coffee HQ. Like I said, it was already warm and we made a great decision to head to the coast. Palomar Airport Rd to El Camino Real and then headed west on Canon. Here I played a little trick on them by turning up  Hemingway Dr. This is a little route that Glen Mako, @Rideescapade, showed me, if you haven’t had the pleasure of climbing this give it a try. Bobby did it on a 23T, I don’t know how. After checking out the view from the top we dropped back down to the lagoon and then headed up the hill and on toward the coast.

This is where our decision to go coastal instead of inland paid off because when we crossed under I5 the temperature dropped 10 to 15 degrees.  We clipped up the coast to Cafe Elysa for coffee and talk. We met some cyclists there who called themselves Turtles, can not find any info on them but gave them my Tour de Cure card and invited them to the Kick Off Party at Phil’s BBQ on Jan. 29th.

 

Carlsbad bluffs.

 

 

After that we set off for home by riding south on the PCH to La Costa Ave.  where Eric took the pull and we flew inland taking another cyclist with us. After that it was no rest for me. Up hill on El Camino Real to Poinsettia, to Melrose where we turned south up that climb and then across Rancho Santa Fe and into San Elijo Hills. The coup de grace was of course climbing through the village and over the hill back into San Marcos. Bobby proved he is of the same character as all of those riding with SD Velo Social by riding the hills at his own pace and then waiting for me to arrive with the Lanterne Rouge.

All in all I had a great ride, good company, fantastic weather and a challenging route to keep me humble.

My Data: Click

Bobby’s Data: Click

Join us next Saturday Jan 22nd for the SD Velo Half-Century

 

 

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