1/21/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)




I walked out front to look at the sky and the first thing I noticed was it was cold. Yes it was velar by it was less than 40 degrees and I knew I would at least need leg warmers. I went back in got some hot coffee and laid out my kit for the day. By 8am I was out of the door and heading down the road to meet my friends for what I hoped would be a good ride even if it wasn’t designed to be all the challenging. Everyone made it to the meeting place on time and we were eager to hit the road by 8:30 am. We all made the light at Gilmore together and quickly made it to the turn on Acacia.


One of our new riders, Nick, was following right behind me as we rode towards Kirby. It seems like we always catch the light at Kirby red and today was no different. Once again there were 14 of us counting Traveler who ended up in the C group all by himself. I looked back at the whole group waiting for the light and felt pretty good about how our turn out have been lately. I have planned an easier route for us because I didn’t know if the wind was going to hit us early or not. Still even with a ride without many climbs looking behind me on Cypress I could see we would have a pretty strong A group that just might break out early.

We made it out onto Johnston and then over to Sanderson before making the left towards Wentworth and the Airport before getting back onto Stetson and heading west. We stayed in a good pace line all the way down Stetson till we got to California. We made the turn and Rocket pulled in front and slowly picked up the pace. Both groups were still together as we moved west on Stowe and got ready for the traditional sprint. Rocket, Ruby Tuesday and Nick took the lead and made the run halfway down Stowe before Gambler, D’Artagnon and Cossack pulled around and started to make a run to the front.

I managed to just grab onto the pack of the pack and rocket pulled in on my wheel till Gambler gave up the lead to D’Artagnon. It was a flat out drag race from that point and the two groups broke up as we took turns running hard all the way to the parking lot at Winchester were we regrouped and decided to break up into groups for the rest of the ride. It was a hard decision but I decided to give staying with the A group for the rest of the ride. I was feeling pretty good and thought that if I could at least stay with them till we got to Leon I would be doing pretty well.

As luck would have it I fell in about ¾ of the way in the pave line as the A group made its way down Winchester and held on all the way to the dump road. I was still with them when we turned on Leon and once more when we turned onto Simpson. We made quick work of Simpson and make the light at Lindenburger and all waited at the light at Domenigoni. The hill climb on the back side of the saddle was a good test and we all made it over the top pretty close together till Barracuda started to stretch things out a bit and we broke into three smaller groups. Like drops of water combining on the hood of a car the two back groups combined and we all met up at Winchester and stayed together till Rocket, Barracuda, Cossack, Gambler and D’Artagnon put the hammer down again and left Nick, Centaur and I. We regrouped at the street leading up to the boat ramp and found Rocket and Barracuda waiting for us at State Street. We made a quick run down State and worked our way over to Stetson and Santa Fe.

Rocket and Barracuda headed for home before we got back to Columbia and D’Artagnon left us at Lake Street. That left Nick, Gambler, Centaur and I to ride down Stetson to Fairview and then over to Florida before turning west again and stopping at Carl’s for coffee.

Traveler was waiting for us and we enjoyed a quick cup of coffee before most of the A group had to leave but it was just as the B group was getting there so I stayed and visited with them before heading home with Traveler, Dura-max, Double Time and Sea Lion.


It was an easy recovery ride home as we left Dura-max and Park and continued on towards Santa Fe. It didn’t take long before we got back to Palm where Traveler left for home and I rode back to Burger King with Sea Lion and Double Time. I had just over 40 miles on the computer by then still felt pretty strong. If I feel this good for the Palm Springs Century it should be one of the best I have had. It also seems like a good number of the riders we had today will be with us in Palm Springs as well. I am looking forward to it.