Team EMJ CAF ride in LA

Jason and I were in North County (San Diego) for the May long weekend, and decided to take an impromptu trip up to LA for the Saturday.  Jason's on the Every Man Jack triathlon team, and some of their local athletes were hosting a charity ride to benefit Challenged Athletes Foundation.  We thought it was a great cause, a nice chance to ride some new roads, and an opportunity for Jason to hang out with some of his teammates.

It meant an early wake-up call from Oceanside where we were staying, as check-in for the ride was 7am in Santa Monica.  Luckily early morning freeway traffic is light, so we arrived with lots of time. Turned out the group was a pretty small one, but eager nonetheless (most doing the 100-mile option, Jason & I chose the 70-mile route).  A few of us rolled out together, with CJ & Brad from Team EMJ leading the way.

Ready to roll!

We headed out via Brentwood to the coast, along the PCH through Malibu, and then up into the Santa Monica mountains.  Of course, like every ride I seem to agree to do, it has a gnarly climb in there somewhere!  Shockingly though, I wasn't the last up of our group! Small victories.

600m climb in about 15km - yay.

 

Climbing Encinal Canyon.

At the top of Mulholland, the 100-milers peeled off from the 70-milers, and we headed back down to the PCH.  Riding through Malibu, I looked over to the water and noticed a group of about 5 dolphins swimming along the shore!  Nice to be accompanied by beautiful animals through a beautiful part of the world!

The traffic had definitely picked up, especially as we got closer to the city.  We arrived back at Bike Improve (and I'd spied a Whole Foods in Brentwood to head back to for lunch...), and not long after, most of the 100-mile group arrived back by SAG - they ran into some vicious headwinds and called it a day.  We mingled, ate pizza, watched the Tour of California on the shop TV, and waited for the two brave souls that stuck out the full 100 miles to return.  Then it was time to head back to our condo in Oceanside to plan the next day's adventures!  Once again, SoCal did not disappoint!