LCBC rides LA

LCBC strikes the West Coast again, this time with Andrew Stroup leading the charge. During a business trip this week, Andrew found himself spending a few days at a LAX hotel. Since Joe and Andrew have a double header race weekend, Andrew could not simply let four days go by without his legs spinning. Originally, he was going to pack his team bike (Cannondale CAAD10) and fly it out to LA, unfortunately, the airline he booked was going to charge $200/direction. So instead he found a great bike shop 30m north of LAX in Santa Monica, Helen's Cycles, who was a Cannondale dealer and rented CAAD9 bikes.

Flying in on Monday afternoon, he checked into his hotel and grabbed a cab out to Helen's Cycles, making it to the bike shop 30m before closing. The bike shop was in a great location, a 15m bike ride down Santa Monica Blvd to the shore and park! The crew was helpful and friendly, and already had the bike ready for him. Adding to the sweet deal, the bike they brought out wasn't a CAAD9, but a '11 CAAD10 instead, being even one step closer to his own bike! Andrew rolled out of the bike shop and headed back to the hotel, taking an easy 45m route back into LAX.

Since Andrew had obligations on Tuesday, starting at 8AM and ending at 4PM, he decided he would try and get an early morning ride in, followed by an afternoon ride. Conducting some early recon, Andrew found two locations, Palos Verdes (PV) and Topanga State Park, finding various Cat 3 climbs. Since Baltimore and the surrounding Maryland area has very limited Cat 3 climbs, he definitely wanted to test his chops against the longer efforts. Using Garmin Connect and his Edge 500, he created courses (40mi round trips) moving along the coast line and into the foothills of each area.

Tuesday morning was an early start, clipping in at 4:30AM (7:30AM EST) w/ a 15mi ride South down the coast line through Manhattan and Redondo Beach, rolling up to the foothills of PV. Andrew made his way up the Cat 3 climb, spinning up Via Del Monte. While making his way up the climb, he would catch glimpses of the coast, an absolutely beautiful view of LA 800ft below shared with an endless blue horizon, appreciating the West Coast terrain and topography.

After taking a quick break at the top of the climb to refuel, he made his way down Via Coronel, which is where the story turns for the worse. Halfway down the descent, a car came cruising around a bend with their brights on, blinding Andrew. As soon as the car passed, the road T'd and he was suppose to make a left. Going 35mph, he didn't have time to course correct, hit the brakes hard, skidded, turned sideways, and finally hit the curb and flew into someone's yard. Like any bicycle crash, the first couple of minutes became surreal. Andrew stood up, tried to prioritize a post-wreck checklist, and patted down his body to make sure nothing was broken. Fortunately, everything checked out, no broken bones or protruding body parts. Also the bike was good, minus the front brake being misaligned. The majority of injuries were on his right side with no major external cuts or scrapes, minus a nice road rash down the left side of his face (see below). Adjusting himself and his bike, he hopped back on the bike and continued the descent and ride back up the coastline to LAX with 18 miles remaining.

Taken immediately post-crash to assess the damage

During the ride back, the sun was finally rising and although still recovering from the wreck, he refused to let it damper the great scenery and experience of this early morning ride. Once he reached Manhattan Beach, he stopped at the pier, near the Roundhouse Marine Lab & Aquarium, and took a quick picture.

Enjoying the coastline sunrise

Throughout the entire ride back to LAX, he felt sluggish and his pace (15-16mph) was much slower compared to the ride down to PV (20-12mph). Not until the stoplight right before his hotel, he noticed the right side of his front break was rubbing against the wheel, making those last 18mi a resistance training ride!

After some bandaging, meetings, compression socks, a quick hour nap, and more meetings, 4PM rolled around and he was free for the day. Originally, he was planning to ride Wednesday, returning the bike Wednesday evening, but the forecast predicted an 80% chance of rain starting late Tuesday evening through Thursday morning. Since he still had to get the bike back to the shop and take a cab back to the hotel, he decided to truncate his time on the bike and throw in another ride Tuesday afternoon before returning the bike @ 7PM. He threw on his beaten kit and headed North up the shore line towards Topanga State Park, riding through Venice Beach and down Ocean Avenue (insert the Yellowcard tune here).

The afternoon climb took him all the way up Amalfi Drive/Alta Mura Road, ending at someone's gated driveway. The majority of the climb was easier than this morning, minus the nice kicker at the end, which ended with a beautiful view of Rustic Canyon Park.

Rustic Canyon Park view at the top of Alta Mura Road

During his trip back to Helen's Cycles, he made one last stop at the Santa Monica pier, next to the park. Grabbing a sweet picture of him, the LCBC team kit, the bike, and the park before returning the bike.

Santa Monica Beach Park

Logging 60 miles for the day, two cat 3 climbs, a wreck, and some amazing views, Tuesday in LA was quite the adventure; one Andrew is looking forward to repeating (minus the wreck) next time he's out on the West Coast, hopefully next time with Mark in San Diego!