2012 New Year's Day Ride !

JUST ADDED !!! VIDEO FROM DAVE M ON BALBOA BRIDGE !!! LOOK FOR RED VV JERSEY ON THE FRONT OF THE PACK ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE VIDEO !!!



It was fast and faster !!!

About 15 VeloViets beat the New Year's Eve "hangover" and came out to test their pack riding skills. Consumming too much alcohol the night before, Captain managed to show up but in his street clothes. A quick safety reminder then we are off!

Bushard was a very nice warmup at about 20 mph. John, Sang, Hoa, and Arnel were manning the front as our usual rolluers were still sleeping off the party night before.

Photo - Warming Up on Bushard

Turning right on PCH we saw that the pack has not come by as folks were still lined up waiting for them. We rolled on.

At around the Balboa Avenue bridge, I turned around and spotted the back coming up. Adrenaline immediately pumped into my veins as I yelled "Here they come!". The VeloViets picked up the ppace and...

We were swallowed into the dark hole! The large pack seemed to even blocked out the sun! There is only the mechanical noise of 1000+ chains rotating in unison. There were no wind as we were enveloped by the 1000 strong. My speed picked up effortlessly to 27 mph. I managed to captured a few photos.

Photo - Inside the 1000-Strong Pack

Photo - Brian Working Hard in the Pack (Luke is Behind him)

Inside the pack, we saw Luke The Costa Rican "Scorpion" (See the VeloVietOCteam Facebook for an explanation!) who started from his house in Huntington Beach. We also saw Steve N and Vegas Matt! Around me, there were a few red and white VeloViet jerseys as the pack had splintered our group into two or three smaller teams.

I was doing okay on the smaller hills, but lost a lot of position on the LARGE hill going into Laguna Beach. Still I managed to held on even as we hit the numerous of hills in mid Laguna.

I completely lost it somewhere in Dana Point as I can no longer hold on to the pace on the hills. Luckily, five of my teammates pulled up. I remembered seeing Hoa, John, Brian, Sang, and Chanh, and I just latched myself onto these folks. They pulled me to the midway point.

Photo - Midway Turn-Around Point: Arnel, Steve, Sang, Brian, and Matt

Here we met up with BigH. He and FedEx were in the front. BigH had stopped but FedEx continued on with the pack. We waited for the rest of the team before hitting Ralph's for a quick break.

Photo - The New Rock Racing "White" Team: Can, Loi, An, and Hoa

Photo - The Classic "Red" Team: Donovan, John, Chanh, Brian, nancy, Steve, and Arnel

On the ride back the fast guys moved off and I rode with Nancy the entire. We had a nice chit-chat on PCH and I was thankful for the break. We reached the rest of the team at the beginning of SART.

Photo - VeloViet Team at Beginning of SART

As we start SART, I told the others to watch for the Rock Racers as they might do their infamous sprint. AnLoi declared it's the new year and they were going to take a break. We all fell for it!

Photo - Going Back on SART

Hoa and John did a really nice pull to the wooden bridge at 21 mph. Accross the bridge, I think it was Loi who came to the front seemingly to take his turn pulling. He even said "no racing"... and then...

Loi turned on the gas! It was from 21 to 26 mph just like that! Me and Chanh hooked on!

When Loi became tired, RR An took over. Darn it! We kicked in the speed again to chase. Then Chanh took over. I could no longer hang and about 5 guys passed me and they moved off. I rode with the devious RR AnLoi and told them that they had us all fooled. No rest even on New Year's Day!

This NYD ride kicked off the VeloViet season nicely. Here we are at the end of the ride at MSP!

Photo - Chanh, Brian, Sang, and Nancy

Photo - After the Ride Photo

See you all soon!

Out,
Phong