9/10/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


It was Friday again and we had another weather change. Wednesday started out overcast and cold but today was clear and cool not nearly as cold. It was my hope that we would have a simple flat Friday ride with maybe a few sprints and a marina climb for those so wishing it. Seemed like a simple plan with only one catch, I had changed the start time. Not knowing if everyone got the time change I arrived at the parking lot early to make sure no one thought we had left them. So by 7:20 I was standing outside of Burger King drinking my second cup of coffee for the day and watching the sun get higher in a clear blue sky.

By about 7:35 Duramax arrived and we only had time for a brief exchange of hellos before others began showing up. Raptor, Gambler, Huntress, Jeff, Mike, Aaron, and Ruby Tuesday, T-3, Ocelot, Surgeon, Cossack and Hit man were all ready to go by 8am. So we pulled out of the parking lot and headed south on Gilmore.


We made the turn onto Acacia and things looked like they were still pretty well organized. We pulled up to Kirby and everyone made it through the light together. We were moving along at a pretty good pace for a Friday and it seemed to me that everyone was a bit more eager that they were on some Fridays. Normally we string out a bit on Kirby but we all made the turn at Cypress pretty much together.

About here on most rides I start day dreaming. I start thinking about when the A group breaks off and how the B group is going to catch them or not hold them up at the next regroup point. That had been on my mind since we got ready to start the ride. There was even a suggestion that the ride was too easy and that the B group might not get enough of a workout. I wasn’t worried because I was pretty sure that once we got to Stowe and California whatever workout anyone needed would be provided. In fact I knew the first regroup point would be at the corner of Winchester and Stowe. So I was still smiling to myself as we got to the turn at Cypress and Johnston.

There is a problem with daydreaming and that is you lose track of what is going on around you. We turned onto Sanderson and headed for Stop Light at Wentworth to make the turn west towards the Hemet airport. I didn’t know it at the time but my well planned ride started to fall apart. As we got to the light we were parked behind a truck that managed to trip the light for us. That hardly ever happens and I was rather surprised that the light changed almost as soon as we put out foot down to stop behind the truck. I was concentrating so hard on making the turn with such a large group and thinking about what I was going to do once we made the turn west on Stowe, the traditional speed run to Winchester and the first regroup point. I happened to be leading the group as we got to Warren and Stetson so I didn’t notice if we had all of the riders with us. I was concentrating on trying to stay with the big guns that I knew would be hitting Stowe hard.

The run down Stowe was as I had expected and I managed to hold on most of the way till we got to Winchester and pulled into the small market parking lot and waited for everyone to regroup. It was here that I got my first clue to my inattention way back at Sanderson and Wentworth. Somehow I didn’t notice that not everyone made it through the light and I guess they didn’t realize we would regroup at Winchester so they had to work extra hard to try and catch the lead group. Thinking of the ride as Humpty Dumpty it was broken and didn’t get put back together again.

I lost everyone at Lindenburger and Domenigoni and didn’t catch Huntress and Surgeon till we got back to Winchester Road. We took turns pulling all the way back to State Street only to discover that the A group was behind us coming down from the Marina and Raptor was in front of us. We had another group running even farther west. We caught Raptor on Stetson at Fairview and Gambler and Aaron caught us about the same time and the five of us road to Florida together before turning towards Carl’s.


It was a welcome break for coffee and my legs were more or less cooked so we took it pretty easy on the way home. I still had a bit more than 42 miles on the computer by the time I got home. At least I can get two days rest before riding again on Monday. I will be pulling for a better week next week.