9/22/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)



In southern California the colors of Fall are pretty much like the colors of any other season if you are a cyclist, bright colored jerseys and black or colored shorts. But the weather can be a bit cooler even if it doesn’t have to be. A cooler morning is just what we got and some of the riders showed up with arm and legs warmers. I happened to be one of the ones wearing both arm and leg warmers. My only question was how many people would show up on such a nice cool morning? It turned out we had plenty of people ready to go by 8am even if we did have to wait for a flat to get fixed before we got started


We left Burger King and headed south towards Acacia and then we made a left Kirby before turning right into the housing tract. It looked to me as if we had a very solid A and B group both so it seemed like a good idea to split the groups up early. Rocket, Bandit, Gambler, Centaur, Attack Cat, Benjamin, (Long Iron) and Shock wave made up the A group and Duramax, Highlander, Double Time, Sea Lion, Huntress, Mike S, Ocelot, T-3 and I made up the B group. However Duramax must have had a great breakfast because he and Ocelot we moving at a rapid pace towards the front of the group all the way down Kirby and over to Johnson.

By the time we got to Johnson we lost a rider to equipment failure or the cold I am not sure which but we were still in good order as we traveled up Sanderson to Domenigoni. Once we made the turn the two groups split apart and we watched as the A group guys put the hammer down. I knew they wouldn’t have to wait for us at the saddle but we were planning on a regroup there anyway. My biggest hope was that my legs would hold up after Tuesday night. I ended up cruising in the back and talking about the weather with Highlander as Huntress and the other pulled away from me.

We did regroup at the top of the saddle and then continued on to Menifee and up to Scott road. By now I was pretty tired and was hoping to get on the Wheel of Double Time or Sea Lion for most of the rest of the ride. Sea Lion has proven to be a strong rider and Double Time seems to get stronger as the ride progresses.

We decided that because Ocelot and Duramax had to get back a bit early we would cut straight across Hawn to Newport and make a quick pit stop at Jack In The Box before heading back to Sanderson and over to Kelly’s. After getting back on the road we came out in the middle of the A group heading back towards the Domenigoni saddle. The A group dropped us going over the saddle and I only managed to catch the rest of the B group because they regrouped at Winchester Road. However we did manage to stay more or less together till we got to Sanderson where Duramax and Ocelot left us. It took almost all the effort I had to stay with the B group all the way to Kelly’s but lucky for me Double Time’s need for coffee wasn’t so great that he was forced to ride over me. Sea Lion was gracious enough to allow me to ride into the parking lot at Lowes first.

Some of the A group were still at Kelly’s when we pulled in so we all got some tables and sat outside and visited till we were refreshed and rested. We talked war stories, bench racing and past victories and future bikes for about 40 minutes before heading home or at least back to The Burger King parking lot before heading home. I ended up with about 36 miles of great ride and I still had just a bit left to ride home and have lunch with my wife.