Tour de Julian

Went and did the Tour de Julian this morning with Chip from NCCC. It was a 55 mile ride with 5000' of climbing. I did pretty well. It was a ride not a race, but I'm using it for training anyway, so no difference. I finished in the top 10% of 100+ riders.

The ride started off with 1500' of climbing within the first 9 miles, so warm up was nil. I actually did pretty well, hanging with the front group almost to the top. I didn't know the route, so I backed off, but still couldn't have kept up with the lead guy. He upshifted about 3/4 way up and left everyone. After we got to the top we headed off by Cuyamaca Lake and out Sunrise Hwy to the top of the mountain. I ended up riding by myself for quite awhile, as the group I was with was a little faster paced than me. They finished about :10 mins ahead of me in the end.

Chip and I got seperated on the first climb, but reconnected at about mile 28 and stuck together til the end almost. I got into a pretty comfortable pace and just kept going. We ended up averaging 17.5 mph. That's pretty good considering the climbing and the altitude (5-7k).

My training peaks account says that I rode for almost 10 hours this week and did 157 miles. That's pretty good for me. The time change gives me more time to ride, as I ride in the am mostly. Hopefully, this pic will upload without crashing the blog.