7/02/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


When I first started riding with the group everything seemed like it was going uphill to me. I had to down shift to get up a driveway and my top speed climbing Domenigoni Saddle was 9 MPH. I hated going east because I knew it was all uphill heading towards Val Vista. I remember the first time someone told me we were going to ride to Juniper Flats and I breathed a sigh of relief. Little did I know at the time that there was nothing flat about Juniper Flats. Today I planned a ride to Juniper flats as a nice easy Friday ride. Times have changed.

I got to the Burger King and a few riders were already waiting for me. Sidewinder and Afterburner were standing there talking to Duramax as I parked my bike. Ocelot pulled up just ahead of Gambler and Rocket. Next Bounty Hunter and RCMP, (Dudley) arrived with Cossack and Metric Man. Ruby Tuesday and T-3 got there about the same time as Huntress and The Phoenix. We had a C group made up of Red Rabbit, Sue and Keith so we had 18 riders ready to go. By 8 am the main group was on the road heading for Devonshire and then the turn on Lyon. Eric and Mary joined us as we made the turn.



Metric man took off in front and set a pretty good pace for our trip down Lyon. Normally we sort of cruise to Ramona Expressway before turning west towards Nuevo but it didn’t look like we would be doing much cruising this morning. In fact it looked like we would be pace lining almost the whole ride. Gambler was pushing his new TCR near the front and we had the two young men eager to show what they were made of. With Rocket, RCMP and Cossack in the mix I was pretty sure that once we turned onto Ramona we would be picking up some speed.

My assumption was correct because not all of us made it through the light on Ramona and we had to play catch up till the lead group got caught at the light on Sanderson. Duramax said he would stay with the B group invalidating any excuse I might have for not trying to hang on to the faster group. With that I watched as the young guns took off and set the pace at 21. They made a few attempts to pull away from the group but soon we were moving along at a constant 23 or 24 MPH leaving me absolutely no time to take any pictures. We passed Bridge Street in a tem person line with Huntress and Ruby Tuesday right in the thick of it. Soon however we picked it up again and at 25 started shedding riders as they fell off after leaving even the slightest gap. We regrouped at the light before Lakeview and after a few minutes wait took off for Juniper Flats.

The speedsters took off and I fell back to ride with Ruby Tuesday, Bounty Hunter and Huntress while Metric man and Eric we about two hundreds ahead of us. As huntress teased me about picking Juniper Flats as my last ride before vacation I realized we would be coming to the first of the two big steps in the climb and that both Huntress and Ruby Tuesday were quite capable of out climbing me if I got to the step at the same time as they did. So I took off after Metric man and Eric and made a slight gap between myself and them. I could still pull away a bit on the smaller grades but it seemed to me they would gain on me at the steps. I did catch one of the two in front of me and got to the regroup point just ahead of my two nemeses. We then made short work of the downhill side of Juniper and made the turn on Florida and down Briggs to the dump road in short order. We made a total regroup of the two groups at Winchester.


When we got up to Stowe it was time to get back into a pace line and head for California Street. I was pretty sure the same people that had lead the run down Ramona would be out front heading down Stowe and so I tried to get out front and get a picture before they ran away from me.


We didn’t have far to go before we would be on Stetson and somehow once on that street I always seem to get my second wind. We were moving pretty well down Stowe and much to my surprise we were in a pretty tight group. Up to this point the weather had been about as nice as anyone could have asked for and much to my surprise I wasn’t all that tired. I also realized this was a very good group to ride with. We have people of all skill levels yet they all ride together more for the joy of riding than anything else. Yes we challenge each other and we match our skills against each other but the victor doesn’t look down on the vanquished and is willing to do everything they can t help the other rider get better even if it means they themselves my one day be the vanquished themselves.


We spread out a bit on Stetson and made the run towards the Airport in a line about a half mile long. We started to close a bit as we passed the airport and somehow most of us managed to regroup at Sanderson. I was looking forward to stopping at Kelly’s because by now it was getting hotter and I wanted an ice cold low cal smoothie and some ice water. It was still a pretty big group as we pulled into the parking lot even if Cossack and Metric Man had to leave us. I was very pleased with the turn out today and very thankful to Sue for leading the C group. I understand they had a brief stop at Kelly’s as well. I was also impressed with the B group for climbing Juniper Flats and not losing any more ground than they had coming down Ramona. T-3 said it was one of the best climbs she had had. I will miss the group while I am gone and look forward to riding with them when I get back. I will keep everyone posted on my progress in New Mexico.