Yesterday's day's 38-mile group ride on the Vado SL really wore me out, and not where I expected from the route emailed out beforehand.
View attachment 188270This was my 3rd outing with the EX-Y Riders, and I wanted to see how well I could keep up with the unmotorized senior roadies making up most of the group. From their bikes and lycra, you could tell that most are pretty serious about road cycling and had been for a long time. Several looked even older than me.
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So, Plan A was to ride in OFF as much as I possibly could, pamper my sore knees with SPORT on starts and hard accelerations only, and fall back on ECO as needed. In the end, rode 34% OFF and 49% ECO.
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Unexpectedly, the part that wore me out most wasn't the hilly first half. It was the much flatter 2nd half around the east ends of San Elijo and San Dieguito Lagoons. Found myself pushing 170-220W in OFF just to keep up with the leaders' fast pace on this stretch and could only sustain that so long before retreating to ECO.
These low-lying parts of Rancho Santa Fe and Fairbanks Ranch were dotted with Spanish-style villas and other mansions, horse estates, several lush golf courses, and big fields for crops unknown. Had been through here many times by car but noticed so much more on this first time through on a bike.
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This experiment left me with no illusions regarding my strength as a rider in this company — well below average in OFF but at least no laggard in ECO with some effort. To my credit, I was more upright and pulling 20 lb more bike than nearly all of them. And most carried less gross weight — especially the women, who were no easier for me to keep up with than the men.
So, a pretty good showing overall considering where I was when I returned to cycling 27 months ago. And thankful that this bunch of roadies seems happy to let me tag along.
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The final leg home was a coast ride with as many MUPs and quiet side streets as I could string together to get away from traffic. Narrow, twisty 2-lanes made up most of the middle part of this ride, and bike infrastructure there had been poor at best. More than ready to change adversaries and face the pedestrians and dogs instead.
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The group ride ended as always at a coffee shop, this time in Solana Beach. I was too bushed to eat or drink then, but by the time I got to Moonlight Beach, the chipotle aoli dogs at the concession stand there were calling to me. Compared to the high-sugar pastries I would normally have had at the coffee shop, I told myself, a dog was downright healthy.
