8/12/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


I freely admit I don’t know what to expect on a Friday ride. It doesn’t seem to matter what the distances are or how much climbing or even if it is a flat ride I have no control over the pace set on Friday. Some days the A group forms up early and the B group lets them go. But on Friday there is a very good chance that everyone will hang onto the A group pace line as long as they can or that the A group will simply cruise along with the rest of us. Today when at least thirteen riders got ready to leave the parking lot I had no feeling for what today would bring.


We quickly moved down Acacia and turned onto Kirby. It was still overcast and in fact just a bit damp and cool. Normally my legs don’t go well in this kind of weather but today I was doing pretty well. I glided around the corner onto Cypress and notices a lone rider ahead of us. Turns out T-3 had decided to meet us on Cypress and was soft pedaling so we could catch her before we got to Johnston.

As we waited at the light on Sanderson I looked back to see who was closest to me in line and noticed three riders that have been pushing or punishing me for the last two weeks. Surgeon has been setting a fast pace and pushes just about every climb so it is hard to simply downshift and make a climb. Highlander has been riding his new bike like he has been training on it for years and Goliath simply waits till I start up a hill and dances by me as if we are on the flat. Add to that the idea that Rocket, Barracuda, Centaur and Gambler were watching from back in the pack and I was feeling a lot of pressure.

The ride up to Domenigoni went pretty smooth and I dropped out of the lead after about a half mile and fell to the back. The pace held pretty steady till Dura Max pulled off and fell back with me. Somehow just as T-3 started to the back of the pace line the pace picked up 3 or 4 MPH and we got dropped. No big thing because I expected the group to blow up at that pace and we would pick up the stragglers. Vortex joined the group at Winchester well before T-3, Dura Max and I got to Winchester. The problem was we never seemed to catch any stragglers but we regrouped at the top of the saddle.

We started down the back side of the saddle and headed for Carl’s in Menifee. T-3 decided to turn around before we got to Antelope and Rocket turned around as we got to Antelope while the rest of us continued on towards Murrieta and Newport. We made a quick stop at Carl’s before taking off again towards Railroad canyon. The whole group jumped the first hill going through Railroad canyon but Wolf and Dura Max decided to turn around about halfway and returned home. The rest of us finished attacking the canyon and regrouped once more at Mickey D’s.

Sea Lion, Highlander, and Vortex still seemed eager and strong as we got ready to head for home back down Railroad canyon. To a degree I was dreading the ride back up the canyon because Gambler, Barracuda, Centaur and Goliath were all in the group I was riding with. I was simply getting too tired to run hard with them and they are like sharks that can smell weakness like blood. There was a brief relief when Centaur got a flat abut once it was fixed the sharks took off. We regrouped at Murrieta and stayed together all the way to the saddle where I tried and failed to catch Gambler on a sprint to the top. From there we split into three groups to head down Domenigoni. Somewhere just before Warren road we saw a rare sight, Surgeon fixing a flat. Surgeon simply doesn’t allow flats and yet he got one.

Once we were back on our way Highlander and Vortex broke off at Warren and Surgeon, Jino, (Corsair) and I continued on to Sanderson and headed north towards Lowes. It didn’t take long to reach the driveway to Lowes and cut through to Acacia and down to Kirby.

We caught the light at Kirby and waited for quite a while for it to change. This was a rather long ride for Corsair and only his second one with the group. Once we moved past the light at Kirby we quickly made it to Gilmore and then back to Burger King. We spent a few minutes talking there and I continued home ending up with 46 miles. It was a good ride even if the sharks did push us a bit. But then every now and then even sharks have to be allowed to play.