Voris, Jim, Guido, Rick and Rob met at casa Voris – it was foggy and chilly but we knew it was going to clear up. It did – after 30 min or so the sun was out and was pretty warm.

On the way to the meeting spot Voris had a flat and the source was a deep cut to his tire. He turned back and rode home on booted tire.

When we go to the meeting spot it was just Ernst and Jeff Southerton waiting for us, the rest of the group took off, hoping we would catch them.

We caught Farkas on the run up to HVR climb. We all split up on the climb but regrouped at the top. It was nice to Chad, who just became a father 4 days ago. He was riding super-strong all day, showing no ill effect of lack of sleep. We rode to Ramona and then to Old Julian – Garret, Matt Davis and Steve turned back early. As we started riding back to Ramona Guido had a flat, and while Guido was changing it, there was a rider in the distance who looked very much like Voris – it was him. He replaced his cut tire with an older tire and rode solo to meet us! The pace back to Ramona was animated at a few points. On the way back to HVR Chad and Bob took off and had a solid 20-second lead until Rick decided he has had enough and reeled them back in, single-handedly (or single-leggedly?). We had some more surges going up to HVR and then on the descent. 

On Pomerado, with just a few miles to go Rick had a major blow-out. He had a long, 20-inch long cut on his tire. Hodges would have patched it up, but Rick decided to wait for Voris vehicle service to pick him up, since we were 10 min away from the house. A few selected photos are attached.

More photos are here: http://goo.gl/CnlCo

amazing ride, you should have come.