1/4 Social Ride

On Sunday, January 4, we're hosting our monthly Swami's Social Ride. It’s a conversationally-paced ride where you can meet long-time as well as new Swami’s members. You can check out all of the details here. We start and finish the Social Rides at Bird Rock Coffee Roasters in Bressi Ranch (map). Wear a Swami's kit from any year to get a coffee and baked good, on Swami’s! Have a classic bike you like to show off? This is the ride.

Route: 33 miles/1539’ https://ridewithgps.com/routes/48626897

1/31 Hill Challenge: Double Double Peak

It’s the off season, but you don’t want to lose all your fitness, so we’ll start our new year of monthly hill challenges on Saturday, January 31 with a route that takes us around San Marcos Village and up Twin Oaks to climb Double Peak via Ledge (the “easy” way), then winds around Elfin Forest and up San Elijo to climb Double Peak again (the less easy way), before enjoying a dessert of 13 miles of almost uninterrupted downhill. We regroup at the top of climbs, so if you find yourself getting behind, just keep pedaling!

Route: 50 mi/5,031’ https://ridewithgps.com/routes/53626965

The final months of 2025 brought stories of Swamis members atop podiums of all kinds. In the 6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships on October 31, Patrick Hailey, whose extreme accomplishments would take too much space to recite, bested his previous age group-winning distance by an incredible 70 miles, giving him a total of 537.6 miles in 24 hours. He achieved this remarkable gain through a single-minded focus on improving his aerodynamic technique, requiring him to adjust his riding position and add numerous incremental gains to provide every possible advantage. His average speed of 22.5 mph over the 24 hours earned him 2nd place overall behind a competitor who cycled the same exact distance in a hair’s less time, with the lead changing frequently during the race. Read more about his experience on his Strava post and view all race results here.

Eighteen year-old Swami Jorge Franco had his first taste of victory at the Baja California Cycling State Championship, a 6-stage race that took place on October 23-25. Jorge took first overall in the Cat 3 group, which in Mexico corresponds to Cat 5 in the US. He bested a field of 45 competitors on total points as well as taking the win on Stage 2, a circuit race with a climb finish that was perfectly suited to his anti-gravity skills. He’ll be racing next season as a Cat 2 (US Cat 3/4). Be sure to congratulate him the next time you ride with him. He’ll be the one in the Swami’s Baja State Champions jersey!

Save the Date

• 2/7 Cabrillo Ride
• 2/14 Lucy and Will Moses Wedding Ride

When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.