Saturday Populaire between showers

Looks like a Coffee At Peet's day. Not interested in the NCCC route today. Need to do a 131km shortie and goodie to fill the in-between rainy days. Get back home and watch some NFL football for a change.

Left the 7-Eleven in San Marcos just after 8 AM. All bundled up with jacket and neck tube. Didn't go up Deer Springs for safety sake, but instead went over to Country Club Dr., Nutmeg and onto Centre City northward. Part way up cut off on Ivy Glen over to Jesmond Dene for some climbing. Big cool downhill on Champagne Blvd and onto the shady Camino del Rey. A few PAC vest riders were picking up trash while waiting for riders to come by. Guess they had a $$ training session today. Stopped by Bonsall McD's for receipt and dropped some clothes before the quick ride on Hwy. 76 to the San Luis Rey Bike Path.

The Missing Link was really missing!

O'sdie was quiet, so I jumped on a few fast wheels down the coast to Swami's. Quick refresh and into more racers to Del Mar, where the detour was in effect. Carmel Valley Rd was busy with bikers, so I hugged some Stagecoach jersey rider all along the SR-76 Bike Path to the Circle K control near Peet's Coffee House at Camino Del Mar. More headwinds toward Rancho Bernardo. Crossed the Lake Hodges Bike Bridge and past the Mule Hill Bike Path. Took Beethoven up to the short bike path to El Ko Ave, then the chain hit the pavement.

Dropped my chain on a short 9% downshift grade.  What? No chainsuck here! The KMC Missinglink came off and wound my new Shimano 6701 chain around the cassette. They were out of SRAM Quicklink at Nytro, so Joe gave me a KMC instead. Bummer. It was bent. I flipped the bike over and checked my tool kit. Ahhhhh! I had a extra SRAM Q'link. I put that on, checked it out and away I went. When I put the KMC one on yesterday, I went on really easy.. Too easy, I guess! Too wide for the 10 sp chain. Lesson learned! Lost some time, but who's counting? Rolled back to the 7-Eleven for a 25 cent receipt and headed home. I'll clean the chain, re-tru the wheel and check the shifting tomorrow.

Cool start and it warmed up later on.
-randorides