7/20/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


Wednesday is a day we normally push ourselves just a bit and the planned ride for today was no different. We had a 40 mile ride with plenty of room for sprints and climbs giving everyone a chance to play if they wanted to. By the time we got ready to leave the parking lot there were 15 of us ready to play at our best. We took off down Gilmore and were headed for Acacia at just after 8am.


Bloodhound was in the lead as we turned onto Acacia and he was still in the lead as we pulled up to the light at Kirby. We didn’t have to wait long because it seems as if the light trips quite easily at that intersection and soon we were headed south on Kirby towards Cypress.

We made the turn on Cypress and chatted away as we rode towards Johnston. I was determined to stay back in the pack today and save some energy for the sprint I was pretty sure would come once we got out onto Stowe. Bloodhound took us to the light on Wentworth and once again we had to wait. Soon we were headed on towards the airport and more or less still in one group.

When we pulled out on Stetson Bloodhound was still leading and in fact he had started to pull away from the rest of us as we rolled past Warren Road. The bad thing about that was it left me pulling the rest of the group down Stetson and onto California with Surgeon and Highlander breathing down my back. Still I had no idea if the group would break into a sprint and Bloodhound was extending his lead by quite a bit.

Highlander and Surgeon took the lead from me and we headed west on Stowe well behind Bloodhound looking over my shoulder I still didn’t see the big dogs breaking out to push up the pace until Full Throttle and Jack Rabbit came flying by. I started to wait but decided to jump out and catch a back wheel on the two fleeting escaping riders. I thought the break was a bit early but I didn’t know if a chase group was coming so I held on until a small train of riders formed up and came flying by me. I couldn’t catch them right away but soon had pulled up on the back of the pack only to find myself backing off after getting past Full Throttle and catching the back wheel of Rocket. The group pulled into the parking lot at Winchester and regrouped.

Once we were all together it was time to head south on Winchester and make our way to Domenigoni. I pulled us to Domenigoni and we caught the light only to notice we had dropped Wolf. It seems he fell prey to one of the nasty realities of this time of year, a goat head thorn. Dura max and I went back to assist him while the rest of the group waited on Domenigoni. As soon as we made the light ourselves the group was off and heading for the Marina hill, the first of our little climbs. Everyone made it up the hill and back as we regrouped once again.

Next it was a run down Domenigoni to State Street and then work our way up to Ramona Bowl. We quickly made it to Thornton and then turned onto Santa Fe and finally onto Stetson. Highlander and T-3 decided to leave us at Girard and we had to attack the surprising hill without them. To tell the truth I was pretty much huffing and puffing all the way up the hill. We regrouped at the top of the hill and then moved on to Crest to continue our ride east to Lake Street.

It didn’t take long for the group to split and I stayed with half while Gambler took the other half ahead of us. We caught them waiting for us at Fairview and Florida. It didn’t take us long to make it to the ranger station and then a hard run back to Carl’s for coffee and conversation. Much to my surprise Highlander was at Carl’s waiting for us. About 20 minutes later we were heading back towards Burger King to finish the ride

As we quite often do we headed down Lincoln to Park and then worked our way over to Devonshire. One block after another rolled by and this time Dura max and Ocelot stayed with us as we got back to State Street. We got the light green at State and quickly worked our way past Palm and then Lyon before turning into the Pep Boys driveway and back to the vehicles parked at Burger King. We talked for a few minutes and then headed out separate way home.

As I pulled back out onto Lyon and headed for home I thought how lucky we are to live where we can ride bicycles for enjoyment for all twelve months of the year. It is true it gets hot here in the summer but if we ride early or even later in the day. Because of that it can be relatively easy to get 5000 or 6000 miles of riding in and to cover several cities in your journey every day. For today I managed to log in another 44 miles and I still felt pretty good doing it.