Charmaine and I went for a big ride with a good amount of climbing today. I made the mistake of not bringing my battery pack to keep my phone charged as we rode. I probably had enough juice to make it home, but when we stopped for lunch in Oceanside I was concerned, so I paused Strava and killed all my other apps. Unfortunately, I forgot to unpause it for the ride home, so it looks like I stopped there at mile 68, but we really rode about 90 miles when all was said and done.
As we started our ride up San Dieguito Road a peloton showed up behind us. We rode tight to the right, expecting them to pass us at any moment, but they didn’t. They didn’t even catch up to us until we hit a red light waiting to turn right onto Via de Santa Fe. I lead the group through the flats and up the first climb on Via De La Valle. Somewhere along the way I realized Charmaine had dropped off the back of the group, so I pulled off to the side and let everyone pass. I thought it would be good for us to ride up Del Dios Highway with the group, but they were pretty far ahead of us. I challenged Charmaine to catch back up to them and during the ride across Paseo Delicias we did.
I had to ride my brakes as we made the descent from Paseo Delicias to the bottom of Del Dios Highway so that I wouldn’t pass the group. That turned out to be very wise. I rode with the group up the two big climbs of Del Dios. The group wound up splitting in two and I kept chasing down the lead group but each time I caught up someone would drop off and take me with them. Eventually I caught up and kept up, but them they all turned right to go south to Rancho Bernardo, but we stayed straight and finished the climb into Escondido.
From Escondido we headed north to Fallbrook. There was a steep climb followed by a steep descent before we made it to Fallbrook. During the steep descent I had a feeling that I shouldn’t trust the road. It had been pretty rough through the flat, but it was smooth on the way up. I rode my brakes a bit, but still got moving pretty fast. It was steep enough that I would have easily hit 45 or 50 mph without riding my brakes. Luckily I didn’t let myself get going that fast, because my front tire unexpectedly went flat in the middle of the descent.
Suddenly I had no control over my bike. I knew something was very wrong. I put on my brakes, and my bike veered to the left. The hill was steep and I was still going really fast. I couldn’t get myself slowed down and I couldn’t stay out of traffic. I don’t remember being so nervous on a ride before. Luckily there were no cars coming either direction. I eventually slowed down enough to regain control and pull my bike to the side of the road. I had a tack in my tire. I certainly didn’t expect that. I thought maybe I would hit a pothole and pinch the tube. I’m just glad I didn’t crash at 30 or 40 mph going down that hill. I’m just glad there were no cars on the road when I couldn’t keep myself out of the lane. I was pretty shaken up. Charmaine changed my tube and I pumped it up with her miniature pump. It worked really well. I took my time getting going again because I was still nervous.
The ride through Fallbrook was really nice, much nicer than I expected. We thought about stopping for lunch in Fallbrook, but we were feeling really good so we rode on to Oceanside. In Oceanside we stopped for lunch at a little place by the beach. It wasn’t very good, but the orange juice was great. While sitting there I noticed my battery was getting low, so I paused Strava and killed the rest of my apps. They took their sweet time getting our food out to us, and by the time we got on the road again I forgot to restart it. So my ride on Strava says I stopped in Oceanside after only 68 miles, but we finished the ride home.
I was feeling really good… almost invincible. I rode up hills like they weren’t even there. I didn’t feel tired at all. I rode up through Del Mar without even breathing hard. It was amazing. I even considered riding the whole bike trail along the 56 before going home, and Charmaine said we could. But I had to pee, so we went home.
