Bud's Tonight...

Bud's is kind of like a good weekend ride moved to the middle of the week. It resembles a road race, rather than a criterium. For someone like myself, who is never going to generate enough speed to win any kind of flat sprint, its hills help to even the field. Don't let that fool you though, there is no lack of speed, and I have quickly come to realize that the two long descents are my danger spots, where I have to give a little extra effort to keep myself in the group. 


It is kind of cool to do a ride on which the local teams are predominant - SC Velo, SoCal Cycling.com, Incycle, Back Abbey, and Coates (there were a lot of us in Coates jerseys tonight, far more than last week). And then there were the couple riders wearing Carrera Promotions International (CPI) colors. I never knew they were still around, so that was a surprise; I was on CPI one year, I guess about 1998. I thought I could snap a photo of the group by riding at the back to get the group spread along the road up ahead. But, instead, I rode up front during the parade to the Brackett Field, and after that the opportunity is past, so no photo.

For anyone who is not familiar with the ride, it starts in Claremont Village, and is an easy parade along Bonita. Other groups and individual riders join in all along this section until the group gets to Brackett Field, which is where the real fun begins. The loop around Bonelli Park, Puddingstone Reservoir and Bracket Field is the main part of the ride - do the laps and then head home, makes for a good mid-week training ride. If you are dropped, but have not fallen too far back it is possible to take a short-cut across the dam and jump back into the peloton as they come along Puddingstone Drive.