Tuesday Ride Report - Poway-Del Mar-Poway

Nice turnout for today's ride, although it was a rarity for VVV in that the group was Guys Only today: Rick, Maurice, Jerry, Les, and me. There was only the slightest chance of rain and we managed to avoid it for 99.99% of the ride. I don't think that the .01% can even count as being 'in the rain' as we barely registered that a sprinkle had fallen on us. OK, I'll give Liz a free pass this week as she has a broken bone in her hand, but for anyone else who missed out, a reminder: we don't ride if it is actually going to rain, but the threat, of a hint, of an off-chance, of a possible sprinkle or two, isn't going to cancel the ride. :-)
 
Oh yeah, about the ride... gotta say that conditions were excellent - crisp, clean, air and lots of puffy clouds with patches of brilliant blue sky. We rerouted a bit to wander over to the 56 bike path where we checked out the improvements to the pavement along the edge the housing development near Carmel Country Road. It was nice to have a smooth surface to roll on, but it seemed like the amount of work done shouldn't have required a detour for six months!  The ride out from the end of the path took us to Torrey Pines State Beach for a little bit of surf watching and then it was on to Del Mar. The return route from Del Mar meandered over to San Dieguito Road and we made our coffee stop at Cafe Positano. The turkey and swiss croissant was as good as ever there!
 
On the way out we met a fellow named Chris Evertson, who is opening a bicycle store in the shopping center where the cafe is located. So we rolled over to check it out. Wowww... that's the first bike shop I've ever seen with marble floors and wooden fixtures. It looked like it would be a nice little art gallery and I could imagine the bikes being displayed as such. They had a few on-site: Pinarello, BMC, Colnago; some high-end equipment for sure. The remainder of the ride went by quickly as we were all running a little late due to the extra time spent looking over those budget-busting bikes.
 
Next week we revisit the Gran Fondo...
 
Gran Fondo I
Date: Tuesday March 29, 2011
Time: 8:00am
Ride one or both of the loops on this Figure 8 course. (Ramona Loop first and then the Del Dios Loop.)
RideWithGPS map
 
Some folks have already registered with the email server on the new VVV website. Thanks for getting signed up! I'll be ending additional invitations to the VVV members who are still using the Yahoo group mail this week.
 
Cheers,
Steve