8/19/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)



I don’t know why but I was up at 4:30am this morning and made some coffee. I had an early breakfast and had my coffee and watched early news by 5:30 am. I was just a touch sore from the Wednesday ride so I had a shorter flatter ride planned for today and I managed to get to the parking lot just after Surgeon and Centaur. It took a little while but by 7:50 we had 17 riders waiting to pull out onto Gilmore. To my surprise an announcement was made by Surgeon that I had been awarded a gift card. I was speechless and touched. Still right at 8am we started to pull out onto Gilmore only to see Raptor have a flat. He sent us on because he was planning a different ride and we pulled up to Florida to wait for the light.


Blood Hound looked fully recovered from Wednesday as did team 4 Seasons with Highlander, Vortex and Spartacus. Sea Lion and Surgeon separated the lead group from Surgeon and Rocket with Team Full Throttle in the back mixed in with Dura Max, Ocelot, Bounty Hunter, Barracuda, Centaur, and T-3 just as I noticed Erin had joined us. We moved down Kirby and onto Cypress with little or no trouble.

We lost most of the group at a short light on Johnston and Sanderson. We regrouped just past Wal-Mart and moved on to Domenigoni. It didn’t take long and we had a great looking pace line going. I found myself about 10 riders back and comfortable in the draft. Full Throttle and Blood Hound made a break by the time we got to Warren but for a change we kept the pace steady and very slowly chased him down at the bottom of the Saddle. The sprint to the top hardly even broke up the pace line.

It took a few minutes before we were ready to start down the far side of the saddle because some of us wanted to make sure we were hydrated and rested before the next leg of the ride. As I got ready to lead us out I noticed two runners coming towards us from the opposite direction so I waited till they past and we started towards Lindenburger.

Once past Lindenburger we turned at the first light and worked our way to Newport and then Briggs to ride past the dairy and chicken farm. When we past Holland we ran into more little black flies than I have ever seen but they left us on the rise to Garbani. From there we made a dash to Antelope and finally back on Domenigoni. We picked up Goliath at Menifee and Blood Hound got out in front again as we turned onto Lindenburger. Vortex pulled us all the way to Simpson and started us east towards Winchester. I pulled for a moment but Blood Hound was out in front again before I knew it.

As Blood Hound started to pull away I managed to send Goliath after him to make sure he made the turn onto Leon. Turns out that I really didn’t need to bother because Centaur, Barracuda, Full Throttle, and Jack Rabbit were more than happy to chase him down as well and they all made the turn well in front of the rest of us

We made the turn onto Leon at least 50 yards behind the lead group and most of the sprinters were up front. Thank goodness Surgeon decided to work with me and pulled me up to the back of the lead pack just as they crested the rise on the dump road. The sprint changed leads several times with Barracuda taking the lead all the way to Winchester. We decided to stop at Chris’s for coffee and conversation.

When we headed for home the push up Winchester was a lot harder than I thought we normally ran. I caught up to the back again just as we turned onto Stowe and the pace didn’t slack at all as we moved towards California. I made the turn with Goliath onto California and we kept it rolling over to Stetson and headed back to the airport. Once we got to Sanderson T-3 broke off and headed for home.


When the light finally turned green the group I was with kept the hammer down all the way to Lowes and it was all I could do to catch up once more. It seemed to me that the riders this Friday had a lot more energy than on many of our other rides. They turned into Lowes in front of me and stayed ahead of me all the way to Acacia

I got back to the parking lot and we talked for a few minutes before I headed for home and a hot shower. I got in the 36 miles I expected and had pretty good average speed. We got in that 36 miles before it got too hot and everyone looked just as fresh at the end as they did in the beginning. Great day, great ride, great people to ride with.