1/08/10
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

Hemet, Ca
To me a Friday ride is like the end of a century. We push a bit hard on Monday and sometimes Wednesday but on Friday the pace is whatever you want to make it. It was with those thoughts in mind that I got up this morning and got ready to leave the house.

The riders trickled in one at a time all the way up to 9am when we were ready to leave to ride over to Lyon and up to Ramona. We broke into two groups with Parky leading a new rider from Canada, Rick, taking a more direct route east while 8 of us were working our way up to Soboba road. After a block or two we picked up Gary who had been running a bit late making 9 in our group. Raptor was already warmed up so he pretty much led the way to Ramona Road.


Just as we got ready to make the left turn on State Street Raptor continued straight and I figured he was heading for home after starting his ride earlier than we did. The rest of us followed Rocket as he headed north on State street.

As we passed the College we were strung out in a pretty respectable pace line and we stayed that way till we made the turn onto Soboba as we approached the first little climb Rocket hit the retro rockets and started to pull away from the pack. I wasn’t surprised because he always runs the road hard. I just kept asking myself if I wanted to give chase and I kept saying I didn’t.

I stayed with the pack and we rode along together about halfway up the first little hill and then Hit man passed and started to pull away. Trying to keep an eye on my Heart Rate Monitor I let myself pick up the pace a bit and found that I was soon following Hitman up the second climb and my heart rate was climbing as well. I tried dropping down a gear and floating on my pedals and soon Beowulf pulled around me. I decided to fall on his back wheel and just as I did Quicksticks rode passed me and closed the gap on Hitman. Rocket was still running on autopilot but at least I could still see him

Before the golf course Quicksticks backed down and we caught up and started the last little climb. It had warmed up a bit so we all stopped and took off a layer and the long fingered gloves. Once we were all de-layered we were off again and made the run to the Soboba Bridge. Gary had quite a lead as we rounded the corner but soon Rocket attacked and I decided to follow like a stinger missile. We crossed the top of the bridge flat out and I was out of air. Thank goodness we were on cruise control as we turned back on Ramona heading for Florida.

By the time we started up Florida towards the Ranger Station we broke into two groups. Hitman joined Gary and me and the rest were up front with Rocket. We made the ranger station somewhat sooner than I had expected so we killed a few extra minutes before starting back down Florida for the run to Carl’s.

Rocket and Duramax made it out onto the highway first try while the rest of us had to wait for some cars to pass. By the time we started towards town Rocket and Duramax were about 150 yards ahead of us. I was perfectly content with that gap till Bounty Hunter flew passed me to give chase. Tired or not I had to go with him and we started to chase the two receding riders. We took turns pulling each other till we were joined by Hitman and finally caught their back wheel. We kept going at a pretty good pace till I noticed that Rocket might be getting tired. I decided to pull around to try to pull a bit but when I did Bounty Hunter and Hit man came with me and we simply incited Rocket into a burst of speed that turned into a full blown sprint. Rocket got such a kick out of this sprint that after a few short minutes he wanted to do another one.

The end result of this was that while we only had 33 miles on the computer for the day’s ride we had a pretty good average speed and considering that we were going east that was pretty good. That includes time in traffic and riding through town. We also had a chance to get to know Beowulf and Gary better. They were even still smiling when we got to Carl’s. After resting and refreshing I ended up riding home with Parky and a new rider Rick. I would call it a great day.