4/27/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)




To be honest I didn’t expect a very large group today. We had already had a hard fast climb Monday and then one of our riders asked if we could do Juniper Flats on Wednesday. When I pulled into the parking lot there were just three or four riders waiting for me. However people started pulling in every few minutes after me. Counting Snow Goose we had seventeen riders leaving the parking lot at 8:30am. Snow Goose fell off early.


We rode north on Lyon and quickly past Devonshire and Menlo. Someone once mentioned that ever during the warm up portions of our rides the group has been picking up speed. Today wasn’t any different and I looked down to discover our cruising speed was right at 18mph. I also noticed everyone was talking as we were cruising. It is one of the prime differences between our group and many of the other clubs I have talked to or been part of, we are pretty social. Still the A group was right behind me and we were coming up on Ramona Boulevard pretty fast.

I managed to pull all the way to Ramona Expressway and found myself still in the lead. I was pulling right at 20mph as we got to Warren Road and caught the light red. One of the rules we try to follow in our group is t not bust or run a red light. I am sure there were some that wondered why we stopped at Warren but just as the question came out of their mouth a big truck came flying through the intersection. Had we decided to blow through that light I would have to remove several names from our mailing list because that truck never even thought of slowing down as it blasted through the intersection.

We broke into two groups and headed for Hansen and Ramona. There was a slight head wind but we had a steady pace going as several riders rotated through the pull and we quickly passed Bridge Street. I found myself at the back of the pack and ended up chasing the whole group all the way to Hansen where we regrouped.


We waited for the entire B group to join us and talked about what a beautiful morning it had been so far. One of the topics of discussion was the brand new Masi Carbon Fiber bike that Centaur had just picked up on Monday. This was his first ride on the bike other than testing it in the parking lot and he seemed to be enjoying the ride if the look on his face was any indication.

The true test would be as we headed south on Hansen and got ready to turn on Contour and head for Juniper Flats. For some reason I took off with the A group and stayed with them till the stop sign at Contour. I looked down at my Heart Rate and noticed I was a bit over 150 BPM so I backed off and watched the rest of the pack pull away. I don’t know how far behind I was when I got to the top but I did discover that we had a new King of the Mountain for the day. Centaur was the first to the top in a dead run with some of our better climbers.

Once everyone was regrouped we headed over the top of the hill and dropped down the back side of Juniper Flats Road. We had been joined on the top by Quick-Sticks and he helped pull me down the hill in pursuit of Highlander heading back to Florida. Wolf and I followed a bit behind the A group and watched as Blood Hound and Attack Cat started a bit of a break away. The pack didn’t let them get that far before they formed up into a pursuit pace line and gave chase. Wolf and I joined up with Highlander and we met the rest of the group at Chris’s.


Once we were all regrouped at Chris’s and had our coffee and conversation we more of less broke up and headed for home by going north on Winchester to Stowe. As the lead group pulled away some of us just cruised back to Stetson and then to the airport before heading for Burger King. T-3 broke off for home and Cycobob, Dura-max, Ocelot and I rode to Burger King together. I got home with 40 miles on the computer and a bit of a sun burned nose. But still it was a great day for a ride.