7/23/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


Fridays are always unpredictable. I plan for easy rides for Fridays and sometimes they turn into 35 mile sprint races. Sometimes they fracture like glass with riders leaving because they don’t have enough time for the whole ride. Today I honestly didn’t know what to expect but after the ride I have to admit I was very satisfied.


I got to the Burger King just before Duramax and we watched as the rest of the rides arrived. By 8 am there were 15 of us ready to ride. We had Sue and Keith as a C group even if it would be their last group ride for the summer. We had a good sized B group and a reasonable sized a group.

We all pulled out of the parking lot heading down Gilmore to Acacia and then over to Kirby like normal. Looking back I could see the women of the group were fairly represented with Huntress, Ocelot, Phoenix, Mary and Sue.
Turning off of Kirby we managed to get a head count and I noticed we were down to 14 riders and Hit man was missing. Turns out he was caught up in a phone call and had to cancel the ride. I also knew that Centaur and Phoenix would be breaking off early because they hadn’t been riding all that much lately.

The rest of the group rode easily together and got caught up on personal information as we neared Johnston. We had planned a new route today that would take us all the way down Domenigoni/Newport to Lake Elsinore. I looked to Gambler, After Burner and Surgeon to hold the pace down to about 20 in hopes that we could all stay together as much as possible.

We pulled out onto Sanderson with the whole group still together including the C group. I got a kick out of Sue’s enthusiasm as she seemed delighted at being able to stay with the main group all the way to the High school and just about to Domenigoni.

Once we were on Domenigoni we settled into a long pace line and headed for Warren road. Some of us got caught at the light on Warren but we regrouped and stayed together till we got to Winchester. But the time we got to Leon Gambler, Aaron, After Burner and Surgeon were in front and heading for the saddle. I decided to move up in the pack to watch the attack on the hill. Slowly the line started break apart and a gap developed that I managed to cross t get in behind Gambler, Surgeon, Aaron, and After Burner. After Burner started to hit the grade hard and Gambler went after him. Gambler finally managed to pull around and he must have pulled the hill in excess of 23 MPH. We regrouped at the top and caught our breath and got some liquids in before heading on towards Sun City.

As expected Centaur and Phoenix left us at Marietta and the rest of us made our way up the new part of Newport the connects to Rail Road Canyon. The road turns out to be nice and wide as well as smooth because of the new pavement. At the beginning of the grade we spread out in one very long line. I found myself in the trailing group and watched as Mary closed on me as I neared the top of the grade.

The ride down the other side of Rail Road Canyon seemed to make the ride up from our side all worth it. We stopped for coffee at a small coffee shop that seemed anything but glad to see us. We didn’t stay long before we headed back to attack Rail Road canyon once again. This was the longer grade but everyone seemed to make it just fine. We were still pretty much together as we got back to Sun City.

As we got back to the Saddle the women started to get aggressive. First I got “Chicked” by Ocelot as she sprinted by me going up the saddle and then I got “Chicked” again as Huntress passed me as she chased down the lead group

I ended up following Duramax and Ocelot back to Sanderson where they continued on to State Street. I realized that I was still getting back into the riding form I had before vacation but still have a way to go. My feet were tired and hot and my legs were a bit tired but still I got in 45 miles with a good average of 16.5 MPH from front door to front door. I did end up taking a nap after a small lunch but shoot, sometimes I did that before my vacation.