4/02/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

Hemet, Ca


After the windy day we had Wednesday I was looking forward to Friday as a recovery ride. I laid out a easy course with one or two little climbs and sent out the route description to everybody on my list. My only question was on the weather. We had been expecting rain either Wednesday night or Thursday and so far all we have had was clouds. So I was rather surprised to see blue skies when I opened the drapes this morning. It was a bit chilly for this area but it looked like a nice day for a ride. I wondered how many others would feel the same way.


As soon as I arrived at the parking lot I noticed Sidewinder’s Bike was already leaning against the wall. While we were visiting Duramax arrived and soon the parking lot was filling up with Treks, Specializeds, Lapierres Cannondales and Giants. Tool Man stopped by to give us a few words of encouragement but by the time we were ready to leave we had 15 riders. With that many riders we were a little slow in getting started and by the time we pulled out of the parking lot some of the A riders were getting just a bit antsy. I could only hope we could keep them in sight as we traveled towards Acacia on Gilmore.

It was good to see some new riders with us today with Jose and Kerry as well as some that haven’t been with us for a while. Backdraft showed up with Gazelle and Socrates was back with us. Once I turned off of Kirby onto Cypress it was good to see the whole group behind me. I knew any minute we could split into at least two groups but it is good to know we have enough riders to do just that so that each group get just the kind of ride they are looking for. The only question I had was how long we would stay together and I had a feeling once we got to Domenigoni the group would spread out.

We were in one long pace line most of the way up Sanderson and with hardly an exception we all regrouped at the light on Domenigoni. I looked over at Rocket after we turned east heading towards State Street and heard him ask some of the other A riders if they were interested in climbing the hill to the Marina. About that time Cossack and Sidewinder started to give chase and by the time we all got to the turn into towards the water slide Beowulf was with them. I thought we would lose Jose at State but I wasn’t sure if it would be before or after we made it to Cactus Valley but I thought the rest of us would have a good head start up State before the 4 other riders got back to give chase.

About half way to Newport Road Hitman decided to take the lead and pulled away from the rest of the pack. I was getting a bit tired of pulling until Nathan decided to pull ahead and give me a chance to recover. We made the turn at the top of State and were just passing the golf course when I got a call from Sidewinder. It seems he broke a link on his chain and was looking to see of any of us had a replacement pin. At the top of the little hill I gave Duramax a call and he had a master link so we turned around to give assistance and left Backdraft and Gazelle to let the others where we went. We passed Rocket to let him know we were on the way and he rode up to ride back with the pack. By the time we got back to Sidewinder we saw Cossack and him standing by the side of the road looking pretty perplexed.

Duramax ended up giving us a clinic on emergency chain repair and we soon discovered a 10 speed master link would not fit a 7 or 8 speed chain. I called Sherpa because his house was only a mile or so away and asked if he might have an extra link. He didn’t but he offered his truck if we needed it. Duramax had a chain break tool so he took out a link and pressed the chain back together. After a few minutes work and three sets of hands getting grease on them the chain was back together and the group was reassembling.

Once we were back on the road Rocket and Nathan took us back towards Chambers Street where some of our group had to head for home. We lost T-3 and Cossack to other appointments while the rest of us worked our way over to Stetson only to see that Socrates had somehow made the turn before us. We ended up chasing him all the way to Crest and then to Lake. We picked up Casey Jones somewhere along the way and he turned around to follow us. Sidewinder and Hitman took off after Socrates and the rest of us waited till we were all together at Lake and Stetson.

The run down Stetson was relaxed and we all caught up and Socrates decided to ride up to Batista Canyon. I think some of the riders went with him. Once we were all on our way I drafted Rocket most of the way to Mulberry and then down to Florida. Rocket and Sidewinder made the light and I ended up waiting for the rest of the group until we got a green. Once we were all in line Nathan passed me and said he was heading for home. I followed till he turned at Ramona and headed for Carl’s. Highlander managed to jump me just before we got to the parking lot driveway and we ended up stopping for coffee and meeting up with Sherpa. It turned into a rather short day but still I managed a good 30 miles and had a great time. This has turned out to be more than a group I ride with it is a group of friends I ride with and I look forward to it each week.