8/03/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

The Laladera Endurance Ride
(Le tour de résistance de Ladera de La)

I knew it was supposed to be hot today and that I had some riders returning from being sick and injuries so I planned a little easier ride for Wednesday than I normally do and we were headed for a quick ride past the Owl Sanctuary and back over McCall to Chris’s. With the weather I wasn’t expecting a big turnout but at least I expected that we would be home a bit early and we would beat some of the heat. Sometimes I am wrong. By 8am I had 17 riders ready to go and following me out of the parking lot.


As normal it didn’t take long to get down Gilmore and make the turn on Acacia and the long line behind me let me know everyone was eager for the ride. As we turned on Kirby Blood Hound and Sea Lion were close behind me in the company of team 4 Seasons leader Highlander and he was followed by his wingmen, Vortex and Spartacus. Dura max and Centaur made the next rank with Surgeon, Daredevil, Warden, Gambler, Warden, and Wolf were in close formation. Team Full Throttle was next with Dart and David in support. Trailing the group was Double Time and his friend Pam making it a pretty respectable group. We made the turn onto Cypress and were almost to Johnston when the first test of our endurance started, the call went out “pneu plat” or in English, flat. (This is a tour after all and I have one friend in England reading the blog so we are international)

Ruby Tuesday and T-3 joined us as we watched Double Time check his tire and fix the flat. Once the flat was repaired we were on our way and made it onto Sanderson very quickly. We were in a pretty tight group as we headed towards Mustang and the High School. So far it was still pretty cool and we hadn’t run into any wind so I figured we could make up some time once we got onto Domenigoni. I pulled around the corner from Sanderson and got ready to set our pace at about 20 when once again the shout went out, “pneu plat” and once again it was Double Time. This time he waved at us and in a feeble voice said, “go on without me.” That isn’t how we roll so we waited while it was repaired a second time and then made a mad run for the Saddle.

After we left Winchester Gambler worked his way to the front of the Peloton and the pace picked up till the lead group was doing close to 28. I started to move up but only made it to the chase group of Sea Lion, Highlander and Centaur before the lead group hit the bottom of the Saddle. Surgeon made a break and I considered just cruising up the hill when Daredevil hit the after burners and I just couldn’t let that draft go. We ended up following Surgeon to the top to regroup. We didn’t have a white jersey to give Surgeon but his sprint deserved one. After we could all breath again I signaled heure de partir, (time to leave) and we headed down the back side of the saddle and headed for Murrieta.

We picked up rider number 20 as we got to Antelope and headed over the freeway. Blood Hound and Centaur were well out front and then as Centaur fell back Vortex joined Blood Hound as he pulled away from the Peloton. We caught them at a long light fill water bottles at Bradley and all rode together to Carl’s on Murrieta to replenish some of our water. After just a few minutes of chatting we were ready to go and once again as we got started the call went out, “pneu plat” and once again it was Double Time. As we waited for another tire change we discovered Pam was still getting used to clipless pedals and was concerned about forgetting to unclip at a light. We all assured her that we have had the same problems and she would soon get used to it. Soon we pulled out of Carl’s and made our way to LaLadera and turned north.

We had separated a bit but soon enough we were all back into one big Peloton and making our way up to the turn past the Owl Sanctuary as we slowly worked our way over to the west end of McCall.

Once we turned north again we had at least a mile to go to make the eat run on McCall and we did spread out a bit getting there. Still everyone seemed to be riding strong and both team 4 seasons and team Full throttle were clearly in for the team point in this ride. Highlander was near the front group every time I noticed him and I expected him to even make a sprint out of the McCall climb.

A few of us made the light at Murrieta and dropped more than half of the group as we continued on towards Bradley. I was pretty sure that wouldn’t last because there are several stop lights before we start the climb on McCall towards the Hospital. As I predicted we were caught by the freeway and the whole group started up the hill together. We didn’t stay together because after we started the climb a Motorcycle officer stopped us to let us know they had received complaints of cyclists running red lights in Menifee and wanted t make sure we knew. I assured him that we followed traffic lights and we started to regroup once more only to hear, you guessed it, “pneu plat” and as before it was Double Time. This time we discovered the cause was rim tape and an offending spoke.

While we watched the tire changing demonstration we discovered that Pam had indeed earned her stripes as a cyclist and had fallen at the light just before Double Time flatted. It seems as if she and Wolf had slowly come up to the light waiting for it to change and she was simply going too slow and fell over. However she did get an Insigne rouge du courage to show the rest of the group.

Once at the top of McCall we regrouped and had a conversation about the Police warning and restated our Traffic light policy. We took a few extra minutes to catch our breath and got ready to head down McCall and work our way through the houses to Simpson. I thought our troubles were behind us and the rest of the ride would be clear sailing. However our “mauvaise chance” bad luck wasn’t over and as I started down the hill there was a crash behind us and I looked back to see Blood Hound on the ground and Spartacus was just hitting the ground.

Turns out there was no accident between rides because Blood Hound indicated his leg simply gave out and he fell over and Spartacus simply lost his balance when turning around to see what the noise was.

After all the delays we finally headed down McCall and some of us got caught at the light on Menifee. We missed the lead group at the light at Lindenburger and Simpson where Wolf headed for home and followed several hundred yards behind the lead group to Winchester. We caught up with Ruby Tuesday and T-3 at the Winchester light and they continued on towards home while the rest of us stopped at Chris’s for coffee and conversation. Paul headed for a ride to Idyllwild and team Full Throttle had to leave early so Gambler took about 8 riders and headed for home. A second group of 8 followed a few minutes later but they were out of sight by the time we got to Stowe.

Le parcours final was when we got back to the airport and caught up with Vortex, Highlander and Warden. More than likely we never would have caught them if the light at Sanderson hadn’t been so long. Still Double Time, Pam, Dura Max and I got to the light just as Vortex, Spartacus, Highlander and Warden were ready to ride across the street. We all made it to Lowes as a group and headed around the parking lot to Acacia.

The ride had taken about 30 minutes longer than I planned but still it was a good ride. We made the light at Kirby and headed back to Gilmore to make the last turn towards Florida and Burger King. Daredevil, Surgeon and Centaur were still there and we stayed and talked for a few minutes trying to decide if it was time to switch to a 7:30am start time because of the heat. After saying our goodbyes I headed for home and ended up with about 40 miles for the day. It was indeed how, we did have trials and tribulations but still it was a great day to live where we live. It is also a great group to do Le tour de résistance de Ladera de La. My Bike knows about these things it is French but I am not. But it wasn’t a tour of attrition because we all made it. It was a tour of victory and we survived.