Great weather today. Nice and cozy, winds from the North-West. I felt good going out the door and had the legs from the get go. I think I did higher tempo than normal, but it didn't quite translate into a better time. I think it was just the effort that I was able to sustain higher than usual. I hardly needed a warmup. I reached route 202 feeling good and pressed on to Banducci. I kept the pace nice and steady up the wall, getting out of the saddle where it was steepest. The remainder of the climb was business as usual. I took a 2 minute break at the summit, took on some fluids, changed my camera mode (which had the card full for some reason and I had to reset it). The downhill was fun as usual and I was able to make it across the farmlands in good time. Today was one of those days that I felt I was going faster than I was. I was doing a good average ride, in terms of speed, at this point. I made it around SS in the usual 15 minutes or so. Getting out of SS, I kept the tempo modest and picked it up as I made my way back on the farmlands. There was some road construction and I had to stop on one or more occasions. The new bike lane is nice going up CVR. I also noticed that they added a bike lane going into Bear Valley. I was fairly tired at this point, so I started the last climb in moderate tempo and increased as the climb went on. I was stretching through most of the ride, this seemed to help my lower back. I got out of the saddle periodically, especially where the road kicked up. After sumiting CVR I recovered and cruised it to route 202. Route 202 was fun at the end. There were few cars in the last 1/8 mile or so. I was able to kick the pace up to 35+ mph. Fun stuff! The remainder of the ride was mostly fun and games. The usual few kickers hurt, but no biggy. Concentration was good, few lapses. Balance is not perfect but felt better than the last time I did this ride. Gear is working well, although I experienced a few hiccups. My gopro ran out of space ont he SD card. Not sure why, because I checked it before the start of the ride. I also noticed that it was no longer recording when I reached SS. I'm guessing I forgot to press the record button? My MP3 player had problems fast forwarding on a few occasions. Not sure what that's all about. Other notes, I want to do Caliente on Sunday. Will see how that pans out. I