5/20/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)



What a beautiful morning it was as I looked out of my front window this morning. Gone were the clouds that had covered us all week and gone was the frosty mornings we had been having. I had a easy ride planned and if we had a good sized A group I had a little twist that should keep them interested in the ride. I got to the Burger King parking lot to find several riders waiting for me. Counting Raptor we had 17 riders as it got close to 8:30. I took that time to give the A group their special challenge. They would have to add about 3 miles to their ride on Domenigoni and they would have to catch the B group before we could reach Menifee and Florida.


We all sat at the light on Gilmore and Florida together and joked about the split that would take place when we got to Acacia. Rocket, Blood Hound, Barracuda, Gambler, Bandit made the turn east towards State Street while the rest of us turned west towards Sanderson. I was just a bit surprised to see Surgeon with us on his brand new Cervelo he looked fast just because he was sitting on it. But for whatever reason the B group was 11 strong as we moved south on Kirby heading towards Cypress.

We were not breaking any speed records going down Cypress but we did pick it up a bit once we got onto Sanderson until we caught the light at Stetson. With the B group top speed is not as important as staying in a group so we agreed on a pace line of between 20 and 21 on Domenigoni. Before we got to Mustang I fell in behind Dura-max and Ocelot and followed them all the way to Domenigoni and Warren Road.

As we turned west towards the Saddle there was a tremendous chase going on back at State and Domenigoni. The A group was working like a well oiled machine in an effort to run down the B group as soon as possible. I am sure their hope was to catch us before we got to the Saddle and from what I was told about their average speed they had a good chance of doing just that. To a degree it was like a Tsunami coming up from behind the B group and we didn’t know how close it was. We hit the bottom of the saddle and made it over without stopping to regroup. We did manage to Lindenburger and half way to Simpson before we noticed the A group was merging into the back of our group. They caught us at least two miles before I had expected it.

The whole group made it to Menifee and McCall where Sea Lion broke off and headed for home. We made the turn on Menifee and headed towards Florida with a tightly running pace line. The plan was for us to take a break at the Am/Pm on the corner of Florida and Menifee. As we got to the railroad tracks Huntress and Blood Hound took the lead and pulled us into the Am/Pm parking lot.

Once we were back on Menifee we more or less stayed together as a group all the way to Nuevo. Once past Mapes we were moving at a pretty good clip and I pulled as long as I could before pulling over and watching the A group fly past me and make the turn east on Nuevo heading for Lakeview. I pulled back to allow the rest of the B group to catch up and we made the turn together. At this point the B group was still bigger than the A group and we were planning on regrouping once more at the Valero Station on Lakeview.

There were still 15 of us as we regrouped on Lakeview. We grabbed a gel and some electrolytes and talked a bit more about the ride up to that point and people started to get just a bit antsy about getting back onto the road and heading for home. To be honest it was impressive to see so many riders still together this late in the ride and I had to wonder how long it would be before the group split up once more before we got home.

I didn’t have that long to wait as it turned out. I started out pulling the group east on Ramona Expressway and managed to hold the group together pretty well for the first mile or two before I pulled over and let others set the pace. We kept together for another mile or two before I noticed we had a small group falling off of the back of the main group and I was in that smaller group. About 5 of us ended up watching the rest of the group pull away and in fact pull out of sight by the time five of us got to Warren Road.

Highlander, Dura-max, Ocelot, Full Throttle, Bounty Hunter and I ended up together until we lost Bounty Hunter and Full Throttle on Warren Road. The four remaining riders stayed together and followed the main group till we got back to Burger King for some coffee and conversation. Pulling into the Burger King parking lot Highlander seemed surprised that we had an average speed much higher than he was used to for a ride of 40 miles or so. We may have been run over by a much faster A group today but I would have to say both groups seemed to have had a good time. I for one enjoyed being with friends as much as I enjoyed being on the bike. I consider it a double blessing.