Absolutely gorgeous day for a ride. I don't think we could have asked for better weather. Checked in with Joy late last night to see if she wanted to roll to the start early, and thankfully she did. I don't know why but I didn't sleep well last night and had a hard time getting out of bed this morning. I have to be honest here, since I haven't commuted that much this past week or gone to the gym, I've been sleeping in a little later than usual. So getting up at 5 on the dot was certainly a struggle. Finally on my feet I had a quick breakfast before slathering on the sunscreen and getting in my kit. I did send Joy a quick text that I was running five minutes behind and I was pretty happy with myself that I was actually accurate. I rolled up to her south gate at 6:35, but she was nowhere to be seen. I took the opportunity to see if I could get my LiveTrack to start up, but it wasn't meant to be. Joy rolled up a few minutes later, having gone to the end of Via Firenze and made a small loop while waiting for me. The two of us made our way back south to Democracy before heading west out to Las Vegas Blvd. We had a nice chill ride to the start with plenty of opportunity to chat. Pulling into The Optic Gallery's lot I was quite surprised at the turn out. There were quite a few cyclists. Granted this was a joint Adobo Velo and Green Valley Cyclists ride, but still, wow. I was happy to see that Robert had come to hang out before the ride started. He's still recovering from his thumb injury and I can only imagine how bad of a ride itch he has going on right now. After insisting that Robert take the group picture, we rolled out for our quick ride out to Railroad Pass. Everything was chill until we got to the bottom of Horizon Ridge. I'd known going in that I was going to go ham up this climb. Mainly I'd wanted to make it some sort of effort. I was kinda bummed when I hit the rest light on Horizon, but when it turned green I picked up right where I'd left off. Ultimately, I'd log the best five minute power I've done in quite a while. Rolling onto Paradise Hills drive I pulled over to wait for the rest of the group to catch up. We had a nice little break and once we were all back together we continued east to jump onto the UPRR trail. It's funny that while making the eastbound descent I actually got a little cold with the cool wind up against my sweaty jersey and baselayer. It was kinda surprising. It didn't last too long, thankfully, and soon after we were making our way into the Railroad Pass gas station for a quick snack and restroom break. The ride back to Acacia park was a quick one. We were motoring pretty good and everyone was really well behaved. I was quite impressed that when we had to split a cyclist on one side and a walker on the other, no one said anything when I woahed up everyone behind me to clear them both. Shortly thereafter we made it to Las Palmas Entrada, and funny enough, out of habit, everyone turned right. Despite all the hooting and hollering I tried several continued going right until I got to the crossing. As I made the left turn, and the others behind me started to follow, the small group who'd made the right turned around and followed suit. After getting everyone on the right path, I pulled off to wait for the rest of the group to catch up and, hopefully, not make the same mistake. I didn't have to wait long, and the last of us rolled over to Horizon Ridge to make the return ride back to The Optic Gallery. Once again I put in some work riding along Horizon Ridge back. I wanted to get back in order to visit with everyone, and knew it wouldn't hurt training wise either. Overall felt pretty good about it and rolled into The Optic Gallery plenty early enough for the festivities. After hanging out for a few hours it was time to roll home. Was happy to ride with Joy, Mark, and Mike. We decided to make our way up through Seven Hills before making our way through Anthem. Mark pulled off to ride home around Von's leaving Mike, Joy, and I to ride the rest of the way. It was a nice chill ride all the way through Anthem and back down into Inspirada. Joy hung with me until Democracy and Montage. Her legs were done after having rode 100+ miles yesterday and another 65 today. I made the left up to the water tower making a quick interval out of it and then did the same up to the Sloan Canyon contact station as well as up Democracy. Overall, I was pretty happy to try to stress myself to ride hard and the legs delivered. Didn't ride 100 miles today, but then again I'd fully expected to get home early and focus on some school work. Then I kinda realized that I haven't done any ride recaps in a while and was getting further and further behind. Needless to say the next few hours were spent writing recaps for the last two weeks worth of rides. Now I'll have nothing else to distract me at work tomorrow and I can focus on more important things. New bike fund: $58.81 (+$0.01) 200 vehicles @ 3.1 per mile, 0.9 per minute, Speeds: 33.0 mph (avg), 62.5 mph (max) -- https://www.mybiketraffic.com/rides/view/132584 Give your activities the names they deserve. -- by Bandok.com Mostly sunny-Sunny, 60°F-77°F, Feels like 61°F-87°F, Humidity 39%-18%, Wind NW 3mph-NNE 3mph -- by Klimat.app -- myWindsock.com Report -- Weather Impact: 0.7% Headwind: 44% @ 0.7-15mph Longest Headwind: 01h 27m 47s Air Speed: 17.1mph Temp: 57.3-74.4°F Precip: 0% @ 0 Inch/hr -- END --