9/15/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


The weather today started out pretty much like I thought it would, a duplicate of yesterday, so I was looking forward to a pretty nice ride. I had put together a ride with a little distance with some places for a speed run and a few rollers just to get the blood flowing. That was my plan even though I have been struggling with sore tired legs for the last week or two. Still I got up and was looking forward to today’s ride and had great expectations for a good sized group. By the time I go t the parking lot I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be disappointed. By the time the clock struck 8am we had 15 riders ready to go. However it turned out that our day wouldn’t go without a hitch. I pulled out of the parking lot only to return when no one followed and discovered T-3 started out with a flat.


It didn’t take long before Warden and a few others had her up and ready to try another start. We didn’t get a whole lot farther down the road before CycoBob got our second flat. We were spread out over several blocks when I returned to check on him and after replacing the tube he went back to use the floor pump in his car. It turned out that he had another problem and decided to call it a day. So we started again down one rider. Raptor had taken off early thinking we would catch him somewhere down the road but I was pretty sure we were too far behind to catch him before Soboba road. We more or less cruised down the first part of Lyon just getting warmed up. We finally got into some kind of pace line and moved off towards Ramona Road.

We stayed in a relatively tight group with Surgeon in the lead most of the way to Ramona and made the turn together. I tried to keep an eye on everyone and keep track of time knowing that Gina had to break off early and that T-3 might cut the ride short as well. I felt sure everyone would make it to Ramona expressway together and looking back I noticed that Highlander, Warden and Sherpa were riding in the back of the pack so I shouldn’t have to worry about losing anyone before the turn.

Like any other plans mine were doomed to fall as we turned towards Warren road. I had given up the lead to make sure everyone made the turn and was sitting back in about the sixth position when I noticed Sherpa heading for the front. Gambler started to increase the pace and a quick look behind me made it look like everyone was hanging on pretty well. However as we passed Warren road it looked like I had lost Gina, Ocelot and T-3 so I called them and discovered they had another flat. They didn’t want any help according to Ocelot and they had decided to drop out of the planned route and head South on Warren as soon as the repaired the flat. I call again a few minutes later and was once again assured that they were fine and were heading south. The rest of us continued on to Bridge Street and then Gilman before coming back to Ramona and heading east towards State Street.

I was beginning to tire a bit and it was all I could do to stay with Huntress and Sea Lion as we cruised down Ramona. I was pretty sure there was going to be a reasonable break on Soboba and I was only hoping not to get run over by those two. The break did materialize and we made the run to the golf course with an average speed of about 20MPH. We regrouped and we still had 11 or 12 riders. The next stop was Carl’s so we shoved off and headed east some more till we finally made it to Florida and New Chicago.

We still had a pretty good group as we had coffee and conversation at Carl’s. Counting myself I believe we still had 9 riders by the time we were getting ready to leave for the west end of town. Just before we got back on the bikes Highlander stopped by to check on us after he noticed we were still there after he stopped to check out the new bike shop on the east end of town. We took a few minutes to make small talk and then headed off to Lincoln to start the journey home. Gambler left us after a block or two and Surgeon, Benjamin, Mike, Warden, Huntress, Sea Lion, Sherpa, Centaur and I continued on to Park and finally over to Devonshire till we had to turn at Santa Fe and again at Latham before getting back to the parking lot at Burger King. I finished with 42 miles for the day and was thankful to make it. But to be hones it was a great ride and I do enjoy the people I ride with. Those two things together make for a very pleasant day.