4/06/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


I understand that there was a time when weather men used crickets kept in matchboxes and bear grease in jars to predict the weather. I am not sure today’s weathermen are better at their job than the old guys were. As I rode to the parking lot to meet up with the cycling group there was plenty of cloud cover but only a 16 percent chance of rain. I had mapped a 50 mile ride with that small chance of rain in mind. I didn’t expect a large group with the cloud cover but I was surprised to see a respectable number following me as we rode down Gilmore at 8:30 am.


We made it easily enough to Kirby and spent just a few moments waiting for the light to turn green. Once we headed south on Kirby it looked like it might be clearing up. Gambler seemed sure we would be able to do the whole ride without getting rained on and as we moved towards Cypress I tended to agree. Still we had a long way to go and there were no patches of blue to encourage me. At least most of the riders were dressed for the coolness.

Highlander and Wolf were riding pretty strong and they were right behind me most of the way to Sanderson and then making the turn towards the airport. I pulled us out onto Stetson and we started a long steady pace line without pushing the speed at all. After we crossed Warren road I tried to slow down a bit to allow some of the faster riders a chance to move out at their own pace but no one seemed interested that early in the ride. I had some seriously fast riders behind me and I knew it was only a matter of time before they passed me to stretch their legs.

I finally gave up the lead on Stowe as we headed towards Winchester. Highlander pulled for a while before Attack cat pulled around and started to pick up the pace on a typical Stowe Winchester lead out into a sprint. Gambler ended up pulling into the Winchester parking lot first but the rest of the group wasn’t that far behind. I told the A group that they could leave first and that we would regroup somewhere down the road but they decided to keep the two groups together. We divided a bit on the old dump road but wolf pulled us back together by the time we got out of the housing track on Briggs.

Gambler and Cossack were the driving force in the A group and whenever the group split they were leading the As. Once we got through the light on Florida the line spread out for at least two blocks and we didn’t get back together till we turned on Mapes and Menifee. I got back in front and pulled us down to Central and we regrouped once more on Nuevo before heading west towards Evans.

We had to regroup again at Ramona and Evans and take a breather before heading east towards the climb heading to Lakeview. Highlander and I were in the back as the lead group pulled away heading for the hill. We caught up to Sea Lion and Dura-max and I took off in pursuit of the lead group. My pursuit ended with a flat just about 100 yards passed the bridge at the bottom of the hill. Dura-max, Highlander and Sea Lion stopped to assist me and we joined the rest of the group at the gas station on Lakeview.

It had started to sprinkle a bit as we headed down Menifee but it was getting wetter as we worked our way back towards Nuevo and finally over to Menifee and south. The A group took off heading for Florida and the B group followed a few hundred yards behind. The rain turned to drizzle and was far more constant. Discretion being the better part of valor I decided to take the shortest route back to Chris’s for some hot coffee and shelter. I took Dura-max, Highlander and Warden back down Mapes and turned on Briggs heading back to the dump road. Gambler took Wolf, Attack cat, Sea Lion and Cossack down Menifee towards McCall. By the time I had my group back to Winchester and headed to Chris’s Highlander and Dura-max were headed for home. Wolf and Sea Lion joined Warden and I for coffee while Attack cat and the rest made a run for home.

The four remaining riders sat in Chris’s drinking hot coffee and talking till the rain seemed to ease off a bit. Finally we decided to make a run for home ourselves and headed back north on Winchester to Stowe before it started to sprinkle again. I was lucky that I had a base layer on that was repelling water pretty well. That didn’t help much with the water stripe on the back of my bibs and jersey but I felt warm. The rest of my group looked a bit like we have been in a cyclocross race with water and mud on our bikes and jerseys. But we still got in a good 50+ miles and no one got hurt so it was a successful ride in my opinion.