<strong>Post-ride report - San Marco Park to Laguna Beach and back -- Saturday Nov 29th</strong>
The 7C's (Prof and I) met at 8 am this morning, well, 8:10 really, I was a bit late and of course I was met with the usual verbal abuse but I'm used to that..
We looked around for Eff as I pumped Her Tires up but no sign of Him so we took off...
<strong>Down the San Diego River Trail...</strong>
Pretty uneventfull, this is a great part of the ride to warm up, it weaves along the, erm, "River" which is just bare mud right now, there were a lot of People on the Trail today, Riders of all descriptions, Joggers, Walkers etc..
<strong>Then around the Backbay...</strong>
Again, pretty uneventfull and an ideal time to tell a couple of Jokes, make fun of Prof and generaly continue warming up..by the way, Prof just LOVES my Jokes, she thinks I'm sooo funny! :-S
<strong>On to Jamboree and a short climb to the PCH Junction...</strong>
This part is always dicey, it's a wide 3-lane section at the end of Jamboree, maybe an 8% climb with crossing 3 lanes to get in position to turn left at the Lights on PCH, this requires quite a strategy sometimes, Pedal as fast as you can - uphill- look over your shoulder, pull over the Lanes and hope you don't get mown down..that's it really.
<strong>On the PCH down to Corona Del Mar</strong>
A nice downhill stretch past Fashion Island to Corona Del Mar, this is the place to watch out for hapless Drivers opening Car Doors without looking back, it's hard sometimes to give Doors enough clearance without Riding too far into the Lane with Cars and Trucks speeding through, but obviously we made it otherwise I would have mentioned that I was typing this whilst in ICU in the first part of this report.
<strong>Corona Del Mar to Crystal Cove...</strong>
Nice rolling Hills, beutifull views of the Pacific Ocean on the right hand side and it's always tempting to join other Peoples' Peletons as the fly by, most of the time I succumb because it's really nice to be pulled along by a bunch of Strangers doing all the work!!
<strong>Into Laguna Beach...</strong>
This is probably our Fave part of the ride, unfortunately our Buddy Bill wasn't there today, we usually meet Him at Scandia Bakery, sit around and shoot the breeze, make fun of Prof, which is easy to do, and take off up Laguna Canyon after an hour of sitting around and back to Irvine...<strong>Prof paid for the Coffee and Pastries/Donuts today!!! *faint*</strong>
<strong>Descisions Descisions...</strong>
OK, We finished our Pastries/Donuts and we had a Team meeting, Shall we go up the Canyon or back up PCH? So we decided to ride back up PCH because Prof had noticed Morro Canyon and wanted to see why there were a bunch of Cyclists there - She is SO nosey - So off we went, back up the PCH..
We stopped at Morro and there were a couple of what I would assume were kinda Park Rangers wearing Cycling jerseys? Anyway, we had a good laugh with them, I told them about my part-time job with Chippendales - they laughed soooo hard for some reason -- Prof and I exchanged a few insults, which they found hilarious, and off we went again, back up the PCH
<strong>This part is funny...</strong>
We were riding along the PCH, rolling up and down the Hills when for some reason, I asked Prof, or she told me, that we should turn right onto <strong>Newport Coast</strong>
What!!?? I exclaimed "Are you SURE!!??...this can be a killer Climb"!
"Yeah, no problem" She replied.
"Have you DONE Newport Coast before"? I asked
"Nope" She replied
I couldn't stop laughing.
So we took off up NPC which, as best I can find from Google, is 2.45 miles long with an avg grade of 8%, that's average, near the top it's probably more, in fact, it's not really the Climb, it's the length of climbing which makes it as bit of a challenge..
So anyway, I pulled my Arm Warmers down, unzipped my Jersey and got into a rythm, I've done this climb many times before and it does get easier, I just stared at my speedo and aimed to keep above 9mph all the way to the top with a mixture of standing and sitting, I dropped down to about 8.5 and went up to around 10 point something at one stage..Oh yeah, that was when I ran a red light, I hate having to stop at lights on a Climb...
The whole way up I was thing about Prof, she obviously didn't know what she'd let herself in for..
Anyway, I arrived at the top and lit up a Cigarrette, after a little while I thought I'd better go down and see if she was OK, so I rolled down the sidewalk and there she was!! She was fine a climbing VERY strong!! Awesome! She's getting to be a really strong rider!!
<strong>Should we go back or carry on?</strong>
I've done NPC a lot but with groups, so when you get to the top you just carry on at 25-35 mph down the other side and all you're thinking about usualy is not touching someones' rear wheel infront and watching their Arses, that's about it, I never really paid attention to where I was going..
So at the top, we didn't know whether to go down the other side and get lost or ride back down NPC and back onto the PCH, so I whipped out my GPS and we figured out a route to get back to the Backbay...
We then came upon San Juaqiune, so we hung a left, that took us past Fashion Island and right down into the Backbay...
<strong>Up the Backbay and Coffee/Tea...</strong>
I talked Prof into stopping at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on Main, one can never stop for Coffee too many times on a ride...
All in all, a beautiful Day, and awesome Ride and a good laugh.
The total was around 35 miles with quite a lot of Climbing.
