By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)
Have you ever had one of those days you look forward to with great expectation turn out to be less than you wanted? Well I suffered a bit of that today. I may have set myself up however. I had been on vacation all week and to be honest I miss the group when I am away. So I was looking forward to seeing all of my friends. But I hadn’t been on the bike all week so I thought I would join the crew riding up Bautista Canyon on Tuesday afternoon just so see how my legs were holding up. This was bad idea number one. Turns out our group decided not to ride Bautista because of the heat so I did it myself. I’ll bet you know where this is going? I should have saved something for Wednesday.
I got to Burger King early and felt pretty good. Ocelot, Duramax and T-3 arrived shortly after I did and Rocket, Raptor and Gambler were not far behind. Surgeon pulled up on a brand new bike made from Petrified smoke and equipped with SRAM red components. Les and Cycobob arrived about time Cossack arrived so it looked like we would have a pretty good group.
We left as close to 8am as we could thinking we might beat some of the heat and to tell the truth is was pretty nice as we left the parking lot and headed down Gilmore towards Acacia. I did a mental check list to make sure I was prepared. Two chilled water bottles from the freezer, one with electrolytes and one with water, check. A fruit bar for fuel, check. Two tubes and 3 CO-2s check. As we made the turn off of Kirby I was feeling pretty good even if I had run Bautista canyon the night before.
As we headed towards Johnston it was time for our usual chit chat and everyone rode easy as we caught up on what we had been up to and what we wanted to do over the next few days. To me this is what makes our group a bit different from other clubs or groups I have ridden with. We seem to care about each other or at least act like we do and that makes for a comfortable group ride. My plan was to take it easy going out Domenigoni and then over to Scott road and save our energy for the ride home. I had been looking forward to a Smoothie from Kelly’s for weeks and knew that it would be refreshing after the ride I had planned.
A quick turn on Johnston and another on Sanderson and the pace started to pick up a bit. It was still no big deal and it was still in the low 80s as we made it to Domenigoni. Surgeon led the first pull and managed to keep it at a pretty steady 23 or 24. Still it wasn’t long before the A riders were rolling along at 26. Like a fool I tucked in with them and held on for dear life. Now I was paying for Bautista Canyon but I was still doing well and it wasn’t that hot.
We regrouped at the Saddle and again at the top of the hill on Menifee before making it to Scott road. The A group pulled away and somehow ended up at Jack In the Box while the B group went down Haun, Holland and finally to Murrieta and Newport.
The B group headed back towards Hemet and still I was doing pretty well even if the temperature was now in the 90s. By the time we got back to the Domenigoni I started to feel a bit tired. We crested the saddle and it was now 100+. By Winchester road it was 104 and the heat off of the pavement would register 113 at stop lights. Suddenly I was cooked. I had to slow down because I simply couldn’t cool off.
The B group stayed with me till we got to some shade just passed Warren road and I sat down to cool off and lower my Heart rate. I had intended to rest a while and then ride over to Kelly’s but Huntress, Ocelot, and T-3 were having none of it. Huntress went to get her car. However a man in a Pickup stopped and offered to give me a ride home. I had him drop me off at Kelly’s and got my Smoothie while the rest of the B group showed up to check on me. My plan was to ride home from Kelly’s but once again I was over ruled and Cycobob showed up with his car and gave me a ride home.
I don’t know how many miles everyone else got but I ended up with 33. But the best part of today wasn’t about the ride. It was about friends looking out for friends. What better way to spend a day?
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