6/23/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)




When I managed to drag myself out of bed this morning all I knew was I needed a cup of coffee. One look outside however told me it was going to be a good day for a ride. Clear skies, no wind and warm weather are about the best you could ask for if you are a cyclist. So as I walked out of the front door and got on my bike that was what I was thinking.

I stopped by on my way to the parking lot to pick up Dmitry, “After Burner” and we arrived at Burger king just before Duramax and Rocket. We didn’t have long to wait before Surgeon, Shadow Sherpa and Cossack arrived as well.

I don’t tend to tell war stories but one thing I noticed when I was in Viet Nam was that if the locals didn’t show up for work at the fire base camp it was because we were going to have a bad day. When I looked around I noticed there were no women riders. Ocelot, Light Saber and T-3 were missing and Huntress was out of the state. I should have suspected something wasn’t right at that point. Still we cut across the Mall parking lot to travel down Kirby because Gilmore had some mud on it from a broken water main.



Things were still going smoothly as we ran down Kirby and passed Acacia pretty much in one group. I was thinking it was going to be a rather quick easy ride today even if we did have more than 42 miles to go. We already had good pace going as we turned onto Cypress and I looked back to see some good friends following me. Sherpa had promised to take it easy on his knees and Shadow was still recovering from at least two if not three falls. Duramax said he was a bit tired today but I knew even tired he would hold a steady pace once we got to Domenigoni. I figured that Rocket, Cossack, Surgeon and After Burner would be in one group and Duramax, Sherpa, Shadow and I would be in the other.


After Burner got in front and took off down Sanderson with Cossack and Surgeon and Rocket in pursuit. Once onto Domenigoni we regrouped and soon were headed for Warren road at about 22 or 23 mph. After the river overpass we started to split up a bit and Shadow joined the lead 4 as they took off for Winchester. At first Surgeon and I followed until we got to Winchester and then Surgeon tagged onto the lead group and I fell back to ride with Sherpa and Duramax. When we got close to the Domenigoni Saddle Sherpa got a flat. Rocket, Duramax and I stopped while the flat was fixed. When we got to the top of the saddle After Burner was fixing another flat. We split up at Menifee road with Cossack and Rocket stopping by Cossack’s church and the rest of us heading for Scott Road. We got over to Hawn and sprinted down to Holland and over to Bradley only to see Cossack with a flat. Like true friends we all watched as he fixe the flat and smiled.


We were soon back on the road and heading down Holland to Murrieta then left on Newport and over to the park on LaLadera. After a brief stop we were on our way again and eagerly looking forward to getting over to McCall and hitting the hill going towards home. It was easy to see that After Burner loves hills and maybe even as much as Shadow. We moved easily passed the Ground Owl habitat before making the left turn on Valley Boulevard.
The pace kicked up again as we topped McCall and headed down Simpson road. It was even quicker as we turned on Leon and again on Grand. We made quick work of Winchester road and everything was going good till we turned onto Stowe. Now Rocket got a flat and After Burner got a second flat. Five flats in one day must be some kind or record and it sure increased the time our ride was taking. Still we got After Burner another tube and watched as both he and rocket got ready tot get back on the road. It was our plan on making a stop at Kelly’s for Coffee or cold drinks and that is pretty much what happened.


We rehydrated at Kelly’s and got a chance to talk about the ride and even watch some soccer and exchange cell phone numbers. Even with all of the flats it turned out to be a good ride. I ended up with about 44 miles and considering how hard it is to get the tire off and on my rims it was a good thing. We might still be out there changing tires. All I can say for sure is that we have a good group of people to ride with.