The Late Ride

After years of early morning rides starting anywhere from 6AM to 7:30AM, I decided I would try to put together a so called late ride.  I always thought that an 8AM ride would be a little easier on me and anyone who wanted a few extra winks. So I decided, for fun, to see if anyone else had the same feelings regarding an early morning ride versus a slightly later ride. My first thought was to come up with a catchy name for this ride. After much thought it dawned on me, why not just call it “The Late Ride!” Now that I had a name, I needed to let my friends know of this new South Bay ride. I created a Facebook page for The Late Ride about a month ago and sent out the first announcement. Since there are several other Sunday morning rides in the South Bay, I naturally thought that I’d be lucky if I got more than a handful of riders to show up. Finally, on the first Sunday I left my house to ride to the start point of my new ride and was very surprised to see more than 30 people had showed up for the ride. It turns out that a lot of people felt that a later start worked for them too.

The Late Ride meets at the Ballona Creek Bridge in Playa del Rey (CA). The ride proceeds north thru Venice, Santa Monica, and ultimately onto Pacific Coast Hwy towards Malibu. This is just a tempo ride of approximately 60 miles with 5,000 feet of climbing up into the Santa Monica Mountains and back. We stop for a well deserved lengthy coffee stop towards the end of the ride for storytelling, laughs, lies, and camaraderie.

This ride has been a welcomed change after a long season of Sunday races, hard training, and the like. Soon I will be back to a full season of racing and this has been a lot of fun with my friends. We’ve been doing this ride for a month now and will continue for another week or two. I invite you to come along on The Late Ride if you live in the area or are in town. Check out The Late Ride Facebook page for current news and announcements.

Thanks for reading.  Diego Binatena, Team Specialized Junior Racing