Great ride in the hills around Julian yesterday.  Voris mapped out another awesome route.  We all showed up in our retro jerseys, shorts, shoes, and our team Descender socks.  Ernst did a solo retro ride and swung by Voris’ house before we drove out to Dudley’s Bakery parking lot.  We started off with 12 riders, including two new guys, Matt and Roman.  They found us via the Oleg invite on Strava.  The group kept a steady pace up toward Julian and turned off onto Wynola Road.  The weather was clear, bright and perfect for a ride.  We flew along the quiet roads over to Banner Grade and descended towards Scissors Crossing.  I turned early at Gorilla Hill to start the climb back up and the group soon followed.  All except Hodges who went by me on the descent saying he felt good, so he ended up going all the way to Scissors.  The climb was steady and enjoyable with just a slight headwind.  The group joined up at Julian Pie shop and headed over towards Engineers Road from town.

After a good descent we hit the start of the Strava Climb–Rick, Eric and Farkas hit the gas pedal; others followed quickly up the climb.  I was already feeling the effects of the early climbing so I swept up for the group, arriving at the fire station as some were ready to start the return route back.  I noted that the day was getting ahead of me and my legs knew what lie ahead.  I wanted to return via Wynola but had to get home so I told Voris I would turn west on Highway 79 and head back to the car.  The descent back down Engineers was fun but the climb out hurt and sapped me of most of my final energy.  I hit 79 and practically coasted back to the car as much as possible.  I was a bit surprised to see most of the guys there at the cars already.  It looks like I was not the only one that had had enough for the day.  Voris took the two new guys back via Wynola to get more mileage for the ride.

It was over 56 miles and about 5,500 feet of climbing for me; more for those that went down Banner even farther.  Great ride, fun day and I got back home in time.

Here are a few photos-

Rob