Group Climb

Anytime I hear about a group ride going up Highway 39 or Glendora Mountain Road, two of the best local climbs, I get excited, because group climbing rides attract younger riders who climb faster than me, and sometimes include a support vehicle carrying water and ice. In the more desolate areas like upper 39, it's safer to ride in a group. There's a chance I'll know someone else in the group, and if I don't, they might be new to these roads, and since I know them quite well, I can serve as a guide.

Loren texted me last week me about a group ride doing the Circle of Dawson on 7/31/21. 

On Saturday morning I woke up at 3:55 am and rolled from my house at 4:45 am to the starting point of the group ride, Encanto Park. I arrived and saw a couple of Adobo Velo members getting ready to ride the bike path to Seal Beach, and I rode through the parking lot and saw Marco, who had just completed an Iron Man followed by a mountain bike race. We chatted, I texted Loren "are u here?" It was 6:00 am. We were ready to roll. 

It's common knowledge among cyclists that many group rides do not roll out at the predetermined, announced roll time-- ten or fifteen minutes late is common. I hate standing around at the beginning of a ride, but I wanted to ride with my friends Loren and Marco, and also with these new, potentially faster cyclists, so I was prepared to stand around and wait to roll.

We rode from Encanto Park over to over to a house two blocks away, where fifteen cyclists were preparing for the climbing ride. Bobby, the ride organizer, welcomed everyone and made a short speech before we rolled out about 6:20 am. We started out easy. Marco and I traded pulls. After the first climb, we rode off the front of the group and opened a one-minute gap. Jorge and Loren caught us before the start of the long climb, and the four of us rode to the first regroup at Coldbrook Campground. We refilled our bottles as riders from our group arrived and stopped, while other riders not from our group passed by the campground turnoff.

People were still arriving but Victor, Jorge, Marco, Loren, Max and and I were ready to roll-- there was still a lot more climbing ahead, and we didn't want our legs to cool down. We rode together for about mile, and I had to let Marco and Victor go-- staying with them was too much effort. I rode solo with Max yoyo-ing behind me for the next 10 miles. We regrouped again at Islip Saddle, and Teddy showed up with ice, water and Coke in glass bottles. Air temperatures were now in the mid-80's, so the support was welcome.

I saw my neighbor Ben arrive and gave him some water. He didn't really need it, but it was a nice gesture. After ten minutes, most of us who had been there for a while were ready to climb to the high point on the ride-- Dawson Saddle-- the highest point on Angeles Crest Highway. Jose went off the front and no one went with him. Jose is 44 years old, and I'm 52, so I feel great that I stayed with him in the beginning, and wasn't that far back from him the rest of the ride. Who knows, though, maybe he wasn't putting in a hard effort?

After a brief stop at Dawson Saddle, we descended back down to Teddy's support car and refilled and rolled along Angeles Crest toward Mount Wilson. On the two-mile climb up the backside of Cloudburst Summit, the group again split, and Ricky and I were off the back. I struggled, but was almost able to keep up with Ricky to Red Box, the turn off for the final climb up to Mount Wilson. By this time, air temps were above 90, so I knew this would be a hot climb, and it was, so I took it slow. Marco joined me halfway up (he had stopped to refill at Red Box), and we rode the final section up to the parking lot together, where Ben was resting, and we refilled and talked about architecture, cramping, the heat and the Olympics.

After drinking some water and standing in the shade, I felt tired and was ready for the ride to be over. I descended and headed home, stopping by some of the group members at the 7-11 at the bottom of Angeles Crest to thank Bobby and Teddy for the ride and support. Although I've don'e this route many times in the past few months, this was harder than I'd ridden in a while. My legs came close to cramping a few times, I was close to my limit heart rate wise, for a long time, and I was hot. It felt great to be on a group climbing ride again, though.