Awesome ride!!!

Well today was the 83 mile San Clemente ride basically straight up the coast after leaving Solana Beach about 7:15 am. The weather was overcast and eventually the sun did come out but temps stayed very cool and just a great day to be on the bike.
Today we had a few extra radio riders with us in group 3 as Brian and Keith both decided to join the "fun" riders and relax after hammering on Saturday. Keith is planning a 24 hour ride to help raise $$ for the XX1090 Scott & BR Cycling Team,which will happen this Wednesday and finish up Thursday morning around La Jolla, so just a slow relaxing day for him and Brian took a bit of a fall riding with a group down in the South Bay yesterday so he was not up to his normal group 1-2 faster paced ride today, so we had some god conversation while doing the coastal thing.
The first part of the ride went by what seemed to be really quick as we hit the 1st SAG at mile 30 in no time at all. Some of the scenery out by the water is just great and it really does take your mind off all the miles being covered.
We hit the turn around in San Clemente and I think at that point the group had 3 flats so not too bad considering the roads and the mileage. THen radio rider Mark got 2 flats within 30 minutes and the group leader came back after the last one and said "you guys are SAGGED out", which basically means no one will wait for you and we are heading on without you. Well after hearing that I was like "I don't think so" and told Brian and Mark let's hammer and catch them and blow right past them. So once the tire was changed and we got going we took turns at the front and did everything to make a run to catch up. The last flat occured right as we came out of Camp Pendelton so we had a few miles to catch them but they had a good 5-7 minute jump on us, but I know we were determined to catch them.
As it turned out all the hard work really did help out and with me and Brian pulling hard and Mark giving it everything he had after flatting 4x today we saw them in our sites and finally caught them in Carlsbad and finished the ride with the rest of the group. Nothing like really getting to hammer for a while in a chase group after 65-70 miles, great job Mark and Brian!!!!! Brian looked at his Garmin when we finished and said we averaged 18.8 mph for the 83 miles, very nice!!
Well all in all it was a lot of fun from 6:15 for the immunity challenge which was won by Mr Brian Myers, who now gets to add his own flavor to the immunity helmet/person, all the way to chatting it up with Brian and a few riders from Group 4 after everyone had gotten in, the CAF/MDC riders REALLY are a bunch of really nice people.
Well it looks like this week will be pure hell at work so I am guessing there will be zero hours on the saddle this week until maybe Saturday. I am going to try to get in the garage after work and do some weights and stretching to help strengthen my legs for some upcoming mileage.