Woodside Ride

My usual weekend warrior cycling mates were down for the count this weekend due to illness, so I opted to join my weekday training mate and some of his friends for a ride down in Woodside.

I was concerned as we set out, as I had heard stories of an insane average speed on a previous ride in the same area. Our ride leader, one of Chris' friends from high school, is currently training for Ironman Arizona and is attempting to qualify for Kona (I think he will). He's quite fast.

The boys were kind and didn't ride too fast. It was a really fun ride and I enjoyed getting out of Marin. While I love riding in Marin, it is fun to ride elsewhere once in a while.

The ride became particularly amazing when I came around a turn and found, headed the opposite direction, a mini-peleton of cyclists who whistled at us -- the Astana cycling team, including Levi Leipheimer and General Manager Johan Bruynee in the team car! I am a huge cycling geek, so I freaked out. It was almost as cool as stumbling out of my hotel last year while staying with my mother on the SF Embarcadero to discover Team Discovery setting up camp directly in front of the hotel.

While out riding, we also saw the Quick Step Team, the Toyota-United Pro Team, Team High Road (the old T-Mobile Team) and the Heath Net Pro Team cycling about, preparing for the prologue time trial in Palo Alto the next day. Too bad we didn't run into the CSC team as well. That would have made my day.