1/19/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)




One of the great things about living in Southern California is we have good riding weather most of the year. Today was another one of those days. I did put on my arm and leg warmers this morning but the arm warmers came off right after I got to the Burger King. Once again we had a good turn out with 14 riders making up the A and B group and 2 in the C group. Raptor and Traveler left just before the rest of us did and we had a new rider join us for what turned out to be a pretty good ride.


Only a few of us made it through the light at Gilmore and Florida so we waited for what is almost always a long light to change before we could continue on towards Acacia. While parked by the side of the road I was thinking to myself that we were lucky to belong to such a friendly social group. I have belonged to other groups before but few showed as much concern for the other members of the group as this one. It was a thought that would return to me as the ride progressed and made the turn on Acacia towards Kirby.

Looking back as we turned on Kirby everyone in the group was packed pretty close together. Not quite a pace line but not one of the spread out packs that we often resemble at this stage of our warm up. I was feeling pretty good and I would have said everyone else looked like they were more than ready for the ride before them. If was advertised as a casual out and back of about 44 miles. It would offer some pace line work and just a bit of climbing and for some reason tends to be one of the groups better attended rides. Once we made it onto Sanderson the pace was steady and picking up. I looked back to get a picture knowing full well it would be one of the last ones I got before we got to Elsinore.

Much like I expected we started a pace line and held a constant 20 MPH all the way to Warren Road. As we passed Warren and started over the river crossing I fell back and was just in front of T-3 before the slight rise. I looked back and noticed she had fallen off the back of the pack and then called to let me know she had a flat. She wanted to try pumping the tire us to see if the green slime might hold and as we got back to the group it flatted again so Cycobob and I helped her change the tube before we were off on the chase again. Right after Winchester Cycobob picked up a big roofing nail and we had to fix another flat. We ended up regrouping at the Carl’s on Newport just before Murrieta and then running up Railroad Canyon to Elsinore and a quick coffee stop at Mickey D’s. Three rides had to leave early while then 11 of us took a quick break before heading back towards Hemet.
We rode back up Railroad Canyon and managed to get spread out quite a bit over the two climbs. I started out strong but once I fell off of the lead it wasn’t long before I found myself drifting back in the pack. It only took missing one light for the rest of us to lose sight of the lead four riders. We did regroup at Murrieta and made sure there were still 11 of us before making the run for home. We pretty much stayed together all the way to the saddle where had one more traditional sprint for the top of the hill.
We broke up into two groups at Leon and watched as the lead group pulled slowly away passed Winchester. It was a pretty easy ride heading back to Warren Road and I was still feeling pretty good as we got closer to Sanderson. Dura-max and Ocelot continued on towards State Street while Cycobob, Sea Lion, T-3, Double time, and I turned down Sanderson. I ended up turning on Johnston with T-3 as the rest of our group continued on back to Burger King. It was a great ride and I have to think Cycobob for helping with the flat repair and shepherding of the group.