Swami Ride - The Last Ride of the Week

The San Diego area has so many great places to ride. And on top of that, it has some of the best group rides I've ever been on. There are multiple groups rides everyday for all levels of riders. Today I went on the 8am Swami ride from the Panera Bread in Carlsbad. The Swami rides are some of the hardest rides in the area. This ride is listed as the easier ride of the weekend. Apparently Chris Horner showed up for the harder Saturday ride and broke some legs.

We started with about twenty or so riders at a very steady pace climbing out of the coast onto the ridge before descending to the valley floor. Thirty minutes into the ride we stopped for a quick minute to pick up a couple more riders. The route had a lot of twist and turns, going thru neighborhoods and small back roads before we hit the real riding. Some of the guys at the front were a little slow to point out where we were turning, a few times I got caught by surprise with a quick left followed by a quick left.

When the roads opened up, away from the urban sprawl, the pace picked up to a nice roar. I few guys went off the front on a rolling flat road. I ,of course, went with them because I like that type of road. I made sure to stay third wheel so as to not take the lead since I had no idea where the heck we were. After a few miles we regrouped going down a very long descent and on to a flat section of road. I was helping push the pace when we turned to go back up hill, very dumb on my part. I tried to hang on as long as I could on the climb, thinking it was short. I popped and rode my own pace to the top. We all regrouped again at the top. I really enjoy riding on a group ride where you can go hard and not worry about getting left in the middle of nowhere to die a hundred deaths while riding alone. This pattern of going up and down and up and down, with big climbs and big descents continued for quite a few miles.

I'm not sure where we were at all during the ride. All I know is it was east and north of Carlsbad. But what I do know is it was absolutely beautiful. It reminded me of riding in the Chianti region of Italy. The views of the valleys, mountains and vineyards were just like between Castellina and Gaiole. The big difference was the landscape had more of a desert feel with cactus and sage brush. We stopped at a general store at a campsite for lunch. From here we started another long climb that I was promised was the second to last climb for the day. My climbing legs were on their way out. Five miles of climbing later we topped out with a ridge ride until we made our way back to the coast. Because we started our ride with a gentle climb out of the parking lot, we had a nice cool down back to Panera Bread.

A 60 mile hilly ride deserves a good lunch, so I ate a sandwich and salad at Panera Bread. I sat with five of my riding companions for lunch. We all talked about how much fun and how beautiful that ride was. We then realized that non of us were locals. We all were in town for the great San Diego weather. We were from Northern California, Detroit, Atlanta, Vancouver and of course me from Pennsylvania. That explains why just a few people were ever on the front leading, because most of us were just along for the ride.