2/01/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

Hemet, Ca


What a difference a weekend can make. I was feeling pretty tired Friday and my legs were sore. Today I was feeling pretty good and my attitude seemed to show it. I was pretty relaxed as I rode over to the meeting place and easily fell into joking with Parky, Duramax and Deacon while waiting for the other riders to arrive. Once Rocket, Red Rabbit, Hit man, Cossack, Gerry and Highlander arrived we decided to ride up to Batista Canyon and it was made known that we might split into two groups. Everyone agreed and we were off heading towards Thornton.

For a while I rode up front with Rocket until we crossed State Street when I decided to fall back and visit with the Red Rabbit. As we talked the group started to pull away from us but I didn’t mind and offered to pull the Red Rabbit back up to the group. He wasn’t interested so I tried to catch them myself. Duramax slowed down for me and we made the turn onto Columbia heading over to Crest. Somewhere we lost the Rabbit but that happens because he often takes a short cut when he knows where we are going. It was such a nice day for a ride that neither Duramax nor I seemed to be in a big hurry. As we followed what was quickly becoming a two group ride we came upon a girl, Lisa, pulling a trailer and riding with a small dog in her back pack. This is what cycling is all about riding because you enjoy it. I asked if I could take her picture and she agreed.

After we left Lisa Duramax and I headed over to Lake and then up to Stetson. After turning on Stetson I thought I could see a rider way up in front of us. It seems as if the Rabbit had cut some distance down and was ahead of us. When we turned onto Batista road we caught up to the Pack only to lose them again when we stopped to shed a jacket or two. I didn’t see Rocket, Rabbit, Gerry, Hit man or Cossack again till I spotted them coming back down Batista. Rocket waved as he flew by and Red Rabbit mumbled something I couldn’t translate before I saw Hit man coming towards me.

I thought that I would have been struggling up Batista but it turns out I was riding a lot easier than I have in the past. My heart rate was good and I was able to keep a reasonable spin almost all the way up the hill. Of course the good weather helped because it was just cool enough that you couldn’t overheat. As I was thinking about all of this I saw Cossack heading back down the road. I was still about two minutes from the top and was planning on waiting for Duramax and Highlander so we could ride back to Carl’s together.

As luck would have it the wind turned and we got to ride into a head wind all the way back to Fairview. We had a feeling it was going to be a lot cooler coming down the canyon so we had put our jackets and vests back on before we started down. We took turns pulling but it still took a bit longer than usual to get back down and make the turn on Fairview. The good part about the head wind is it kept Highlander from passing me just to prove he could pass me.

Once again way up in front of us we saw one or two riders so we picked up the pace to see if we could catch them before they got back to Florida. It felt like the race was on and the three of us were in a pace line closing on the two riders at a pretty rapid pace. Just about the time I could tell we were closing on Gerry and Rabbit they made a turn on Stetson. We were so close but no victory as we were all going to Carl’s. Duramax just smiled and waved as we put our head down and headed for Florida.

It was a good day for a ride and nice to be out with friends. It was also proof that the group could split in two and give both the A and B riders a good ride. I had 41 miles for the day and a relaxing ride.