About time Kevin and I do someone else’s Sunday ride and experience cycling at a pace not entirely our own! It was clearly meant to be; Zack invited us when he came into the store on Saturday, and it was early enough that it met the criteria of being back in time for my daughter’s graduation get-together thingee at 2pm.

We met at Roberts in Woodside, the “we” being Zack, John, Sophia, Diane (I think?), Jeffrey, myself and Kevin. The route was the usual Coastal Classic, no surprises there, although we did show Zack’s group the detour past the duck pond outside of LaHonda. The pace was pretty easy for most of the ride, keeping things more-or-less together for the climb up Old LaHonda & Haskins. Lunch in Pescadero (of course!) and then things started

picking up on the Stage Road climbs; not wicked-fast or anything, but we were now regrouping at the top of the climbs. I still didn’t have a great handle for how fast everyone was until Tunitas, where I tried to keep up with Zack, Kevin, Jeffrey & John but once it got steep I was shelled. I kept them in sight for a while as I worked on slowing down my breathing and finding a sustainable pace, eventually working my way up to and past John but the other three had flown the coop. Since I wasn’t looking for Strava times today, I regrouped with John where Tunitas levels out and we rode a casual pace to the top, very much unlike the other three. Jeffrey had dropped Kevin on the steeper pitches but Kevin limited his losses and maybe even regained some ground on the upper section, coming in just 15 seconds behind Jeffrey. Wish I could have been there to see it!

Weather? Right, weather. It was hot and uncomfortable on the bay side of the hills, but stunningly-nice on the coast, with just a hint of fog keeping temps right around 70.

Really nice people on the ride; Zack has good taste in friends! One of them, John, owns Family Bicycle Center in Santa Cruz, so I got a chance to “talk shop” a bit (I don’t normally get to ride much with other people in the bike biz)