3/26/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

Hemet, Ca

When I looked at the weather report last night I noticed they reported a chance of rain so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got up this morning. What I saw when I looked out this morning was a few clouds and a lot of blue sky. It might be a bit cool but it sure wasn’t going to rain.

For a change I got to the parking lot first and waited to see how many would show up for another relatively easy Friday ride. It wasn’t long before Duramax pulled up followed shortly by Rocket. I watched as Sidewinder stopped at the light on Florida only to notice that he was dressed ready to ride with a new jersey and bibs. Cossack and Hitman arrived next with Beowulf and Huntress close behind. I could see this was shaping up to be a good ride. Just as we started to pull out of the parking lot heading toward Lyon T-3 rolled up and we had our group for the day.


As we rode up Lyon towards Ramona we were moving at a pace that told me we were going to have a rather quick average for a Friday. My suspicions were confirmed once we were on Ramona expressway heading towards Nuevo. Boewulf and Sidewinder pulled ahead of the rest of us and stretched out a lead till we all passed Warren. Not long after that we started to regroup when once again Sidewinder started to pull away until Rocket, Cossack, Beowulf, Hitman and I formed a pace-line and started to reel him in. once we caught him and were cruising along again Hitman informed me the Huntress was coming up from behind trying to close the gap all by herself. I knew this would be a hard pull into the wind so we backed down to let her into the draft. As soon as we saw the stop light where we would be turning left Hitman and I picked the pace back up to catch up with the lead group who were waiting on the frontage road. We stopped at the gas station so Sidewinder could wash the chain grease off of his hands and regrouped once again.

Once back on the road we started another pace line with Rocket setting the pace all the way to Nuevo road. I fully admit I was holding on for all I was worth at times but also there were times I felt strong enough to take the lead. Once we made the turn onto Nuevo and then Ramona Ave and finally onto Central we regrouped. Thank goodness Central is downhill so my legs got a bit of a rest. As we headed towards Menifee road and made the turn south I thought just about everyone in the group looked more rested than me and to be honest I wondered if they started another pace-line if I could even hang on.

I managed to get up enough energy to crest the rise at San Jacinto road and was leading as we passed the stop sign. It wasn’t long before Rocket pulled out around me followed by Sidewinder, Hitman, Beowulf and Cossack. It was all I could do to get onto Cossack’s back wheel and the next pace-line seemed brutal. I knew Rocket would hammer the hill by the nursery and I thought I had used up every ounce of energy to hold on to that point. But things didn’t get any easier from there as we continued on passed Mapes heading towards Florida. The problem was we were running into a head wind and that was sapping our energy. The advantage was I happened to be at the back of the pack and my energy wasn’t quite as zapped as Rocket’s and just as another gust of wind hit the leaders head on I pulled around for a pass. I could see Rocket was tapped so I was about to pull back over to let him draft me when Sidewinder pulled passed me with no intention of stopping. Not willing to let him got away I held onto his back wheel till we got to Florida where we pulled over to wait for the rest of the group. Sidewinder was so focused that he rode on without us but soon returned to see why we had stopped.

Once regrouped we continued on all the way down Menifee till we turned onto Simpson and got slightly split up by the light at Linderburger. Cossack, Rocket, Hitman and Sidewinder pulled out in front of us and Beowulf pulled me along till I got my second wind and we all turned onto Leon heading for 9th.


There was a mini sprint with Rocket, Cossack, Beowulf and Sidewinder that didn’t get started till we were well down the road because there was some construction going on. But we all made it to Chris’s together and had some coffee and watched in wonder as Sidewinder refueled on a BLT. Once we were all ready to go it was a quick jump up to Domenigoni and the run back towards Sanderson. Rocket, Cossack and Sidewinder decided to make another run and the rest of us watched as they pulled away while we held to about 18 mph. Still by the time I got home we had an average of over 17 MPH for 38 miles. It may have been a bit quick for an easy Friday ride but it was a good ride none the less.