A few incidents out of thousands of club rides. Of course, I haven't mentioned crashes, clubs have crashes.

Club riding is what has kept me going, kept me from quitting riding, got me out on the bike even when I didn't think I would enjoy it. I was never one of the fastest riders but those were the people I liked and became friends with. The problem now is I have slowed and my endurance is not what it was. They've slowed but not as much. I used to have pretty good endurance, now it's hit and miss.

Today there was a small group of friends and acquaintances doing an 80+ mile ride with 5K climbing. If I started with them they would have to wait a lot on all the climbs. So I drove to the corner of the valley and rode to the coast to wait for them at a Sbux. They got there about 15 minutes later and we drank coffee and played with some dogs who were tied up there.

I left before they did to try and reach the featured climb ahead of them. 12 miles of PCH later, I turned up Encinal canyon and they came up as I was standing along the road. More perfect timing. I didn't ask how long they waited at the top for me but they didn't seem to mind. We stayed more or less together until we went our separate ways with them waiting a couple more times despite me insisting they go on. Good day.

Last Saturday I did a similar thing. Started ahead of the fast group and waited at the top of the long climb and we stayed together after that, more or less.

Today's truncated route. encinal · Ride with GPS