I was thinking about riding the Mike Nosco ride on the drive back last night from LA and am still surprised about how enjoyable it can be riding up and down the canyons from the coast highway near Malibu. It seems like LA is just so congested and crowded, but climbing Deer Creek, Mulholland and Latigo, I’m pretty sure that not one car passed me the on any of the three climbs. And this was on a Sunday, late morning. Don’t get me wrong, it was a special circumstance with so my cyclists “hogging” the roads. And on some of the climbs, especially Latigo, there were a ton of motorcycle guys, in leathers, out for their weekend rides. But, considering how the area is surrounded by millions of people, it really is nearly abandoned. (Strava file info.)

It really is like this just about anywhere I’ve ever been. No matter the city, there is always a place to ride. Well, maybe not London. And Sao Paulo Brazil wasn’t too conducive for training either. But here in the US, no matter how big a city is, there are always rides, which is awesome.

And this is one of the big attractions of the sport for me. Being able to see different places at a speed that I can absorb it. Cycling is just the right speed. Running is too slow and the distances aren’t nearly large enough. And driving in a car, you are too removed from the surroundings when you are in an urban environment.

There were so many riders yesterday that I actually didn’t even catch up with a lot of friends that I saw or heard were there, but never ran into. I ended up riding a fair amount of the ride on my own. At the top of Mulholland, I had been climbing with the front group and we stopped at the rest area. My ex team-mate, Thurlow Rogers was a bit behind and just rode right by the rest stop. I wanted to talk to him, so I gulped a Coke down and took off chasing him. I thought he was only a minute or two ahead. But I chased all the way down to the coast, miles along the PCH and finally when I got to Latigo, I came to the conclusion that Thurlow must be somewhere else, because he couldn’t have been going that hard. I never saw him again the whole day.

I’ve never much into the group touring type rides, but this ride is different. I don’t really understand Grand Fondos. I don’t know if they are races or touring events? But I know this ride isn’t a Grand Fonda. It’s just a bunch of guys going out and riding with friends to help out friends.

I didn’t realize how many people were there until I saw this photo this morning.

Map of the course.

I rode the first half with a smallish group that included Dave Zabriskie. I didn’t catch the name of the rider in the brown. He was strong. I really liked his clothing. I’d never seen brown shorts before and they looked great. He told me they were locally made. Maybe someone can leave a comment about where exactly they come from.

I did get a chase to talk with Wayne Stetina for a while after.

Here I am with Roy’s wife, Debbie.

I guess there was a special award for the fastest Strava time up Mulholland. I didn’t know anything about it, but the plaque was pretty cool.

Don’t really have that much time this morning, so I’ll just do a short recap of the race yesterday. I finished 39th, which is the worst I’ve ever finished in a cyclocross in modern history. Even starting 100 guys back in Nationals I’ve finished better than that. But, it’s fine. I didn’t have any illusions about how I was going to finish. I have done nothing to really prepare for the efforts needed in cross. I’ve only race twice in the last 3 months and both of those races were long MTB races.

I didn’t get such a bad call-up. I was 42nd. I thought the start went pretty well, I passed a big chunk of guys early, but by the time I got to Trudi, at 1/2 lap in, she said I was in 40th. That was surprising at the time. I would have guessed I was close to 30th. Anyway, I can’t pinpoint anything that really went that badly. I was just sort of bad at everything. Not close to up to speed on anything.

Anyway, after two laps, I was 2 minutes back and realized that I was going to become a casualty of the 80% rule. It is hard putting much effort into a bike race when you know you are going to get pulled. I still tried to improve and ride smoothly, but was doing a pitiful job of that often. I was pulled when the leaders had one lap to go, so I had two.

I didn’t feel that bad riding. My lungs hated it the most. I was coughing up stuff for a while after. But, other than that, I was just slow.

The battle at the front was awesome. Ryan Trebon and Jeremy Powers changed leads two or three times the last 1/4 lap. It was an exciting finish. Should be just a good today.

I hope to do a little better today. I need to make a bigger effort at the start and not get stuck riding around with slower guys at the start. I guess it depends on my random number draw. Okay, I need to get going.

Not too sore from running yesterday.

Lonely on the fly-over.