2/28 Ride Report - The Bulldog Ride

The news spread quickly at this morning’s ride. One of our own VeloViet members had won in his age division at the tough Bulldog Race at Camp Pendleton. The Warrior (aka Nic) won his division and placed 29th overall! We all realized this was a huge personal accomplishment for Nic, as this is Nic’s first bike race win, and as well for OC VeloViet, as this the first time an OC rider won a prestigious race.

For those who are not familiar with Southern California, Camp Pendleton is a military base roughly halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. The Marine base occasionally holds bike races, and it has a reputation of attracting the tough of the toughest riders. We knew The Warrior has been training hard for this, as Cap’t had previously let on a game plan a few months ago on e-mail for Nic to execute to assure the best chance of winning. We were all excited and pumped hearing of Nic’s accomplishment!

Photo #1 - Part of Group A discussing Nic’s win and training strategies.

We all decided that The Warrior needs even more training for his next race. See what happens when you win in OC! Everybody gets excited and wants to help get you in racing shape. A total of 23 riders showed up today to help accomplish this ride’s strategy. Tuan was the first to attack on the River Trail, drawing out The Animal. These two disappeared up the road as the rest of us were still trying to warm up. It had rain the day before, and the cool air was not letting our legs muscle work.

Right before the first bridge, Luke has a flat. After a quick discussion, we decided to leave a few strong riders back to wait for Luke, while Group B and most of Group A took off with Cap’t. The plan was this first group would roll slow, and the second group would go hard, after the flat change, to catch up. The tire change took like an eternity but we were off again, working hard to try to catch the first group.

We did not get far, as now Dave has a flat. Arrgg!!! What the heck is going on??? Yesterday's rain must have bring down rocks and gravel onto the trail, and these debris must be causing all these flats. Where is Tuan, our speedy flat changer when we need him most? We lost more precious minutes for this flat repair. Off we go again.

Tuan and TZ was in the front group, but had realized we needed more help, and they waited for us at the rest stop. We regroup and started out fast playing catch up. Tuan was like a madman, as he drag our group at around 24 mph down the trail! We were working so hard just to try to stay in his draft. We quickly ascended Santiago Canyon, saw Group B resting at the corner of Chapman, but continue up the hill without even stopping to say hi. We were now chasing Group A, and knew Group B would not take the tough Chapman hill.

Chapman is a tough hill that is relentless in its climb. There were only 6 of us chasing: Tuan, Duc, Luke, Cuong, TZ, and I. On the hard climb, Tuan, Duc, Luke, and I got a small gap on Cuong and TZ. The four of us were working well together. Luke would start things off by SPRINTING up this hill. This guy sprints in all terrain! As Luke tires, Tuan would take over. As Tuan pulls off, Duc would show us his climbing ability. Whatever energy I have left, I would give it with my turn.

After about half an hour of climbing, Duc had gapped the rest of us and was about 300 feet ahead. Something seemed to click around this time with Tuan, Luke, and I. An unspoken agreement formed for us to chase down Duc. Luke took his turn first with a hard sprint, then Tuan pulled. When it was my turn, something came over me and all of a sudden I had so much energy. I shifted to the larger front ring, took a long strong pull, and got us near Duc.

As I pull aside and shift down, my chain came off! What??? Luckily Tuan was behind and yelled out to the other two guys to stop. I quickly remounted my chain and off we went.

This sudden stop sapped me all of my energy. Duc and Tuan took off, and Luke and I dropped behind. Suddenly Luke slowed and stopped. I passed him, look around, and saw that he was checking his tire. I braked and rolled back to where he was. Darn it! Yet another flat! Tuan and Duc have disappeared up the hill. Cuong and TZ rolled up as we started the flat repair. This was a tire “humping” kind of day as we were hit with 3 flats so far. Man I was tired too from all the chasing! Check out the nice video Cuong put together for us. Bring out your dancing shoes though!


Video #1 - It's a "Humping" Kind of Ride!

We quickly change the flat, and used what seemed like our last CO2 cartridges. We took off and caught up with Tuan, Duc, and the rest of the Group A guys as they were waiting for us at the top of Glenn Ranch Road.

Little did I realize that up to this point, it was just a warm up for most of these front guys. There were 9 of us now: The Animal, The Warrior, Mad Dog, Duc, Tuan, TZ, Cuong, Luke, and I. The guys had been waiting for us for a while and were restless. As soon as we showed up, we took off.

This part of the ride is really where the bulldog mentality came out. The Animal, The Warrior, Mad Dog, and Tuan took a bite of the road, never let go, and rode HARD! It was beautiful to watch as these 4 rotated and took their turn at the front. The Animal was AMAZING and was taking long pulls at the front when everyone else was gasping for air! Scott M has got to be our most consistent rider, that can generate the most power for the longest time, compare to the rest of us that day. He was like an animal! The rest of us were just hanging on to him for dear life. We got to the gas station in no time and quickly filled up with water. We took off.

Luke, Duc, and I shared a bit of the work up front with the Bulldog Four: The Animal, The Warrior, Mad Dog, and Tuan. TZ was tucked in, and Cuong had burned so much energy, sprinting up front to take pictures, that he got gapped a little. Next time you see him don't forget to thank him for these great pictures! Cuong always managed to catch back on though. We hit the Backbay.

Backbay and PCH were quickly covered. Nic gave it a go right before the bridge and took off. I peeled around The Animal and tried to reel Nic back but could not. We regrouped at the start of the trail, and started blazing down its path.

Near the end of the trail, we passed a couple of members of Group B! We could not believe it! These guys did not take the Chapman hill, took a shorter route, and we caught up to them! Unbelievable!

Renewed with this energy, we did not stop at the end of the trail and rode hard into the street. We next caught up to the main group of Group B! We looked, did not see Cap’t, so continued on hard. A little ways, we saw Cap’t up ahead with Toan and a few other Group B riders. We put our heads down and caught up to them. As we passed, Cap’t looked up in surprise, yelled out loudly, and then started to sprint after us. He caught on.

At MSP, Cap’t was excited and said that he thought Group B would make it back to the park before us. What he did not know was that we had the Bulldog Fever in our mist today, and were working hard and never relinquish. Cap’t was still excited even after 10 minutes, as well as we were, and said that he was proud of us all.

We rode hard today and it was one of the fastest rides so far this year. Technically we are not a race club... but I wonder if this is the start of the VeloViet Racing Team. Guess we will have to wait and see.

Congrats again to The Warrior for winning his division at the Bulldog Race. Way to go! Here is a great summary picture recapping this great Bulldog of a Ride.

Photo #2 - A mix picture of all of the activities on this ride, including changing flats!

Signing out,
Phong