8/31/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

A quick day in the life of an A rider.


The day was supposed to be the coolest of the week so I extended the distance a bit and decided to send both t A and the B group on the same ride. I was looking forward to pushing myself a bit and joining the A group as much as I could. With that in mind I headed for the Burger Kink Parking lot feeling pretty good.

Surgeon and Centaur were already waiting for me as was Highlander. Dura max, Vortex and Blood Hound arrived and I noticed Shawn was with us again. T-3 arrived about the same time as Full Throttle and D’Artagnon. Sea Lion and Wolf pulled up and I thought we were ready to go but Huntress and Puma arrived just as we were about to pull out onto Gilmore. Now we were ready to ride and took off for Acacia. We made the light at Kirby and headed for Cypress. As I turned onto Cypress and headed for Johnston it was one of the last times I was in front of the group.


We turned right on Sanderson and caught the light just past the railroad tracks and waited till the light changed. As soon as we were headed towards the Airport we were attacked by goat heads and suffered three flats. Blood Hound continued on to Hanger One and didn’t realize we were held up. Once back on the road we quickly moved past the airport and out onto Stetson. This was just about the last time I got am chance to rest at all. We quickly pace lined to California and made the turn onto Stowe where I tried to slowly move myself towards the front of the pack were I expected the A group to mount an attack. I attacked first and got a pretty good jump. But it was too early and well before I could get to the barn I was run down by two chase groups. My first attempt to play with the big dogs was denied. More than half of the pack caught me before we got to the parking lot on Winchester.

It took a few minutes to catch our breath and we did a preemptive tire change on T-3s bike while we were at the Winchester farms parking lot. I think I got almost as winded pumping up the tire as I did during the sprint. Still it wasn’t as hot as it had been for the last few days and we still had most of the ride to go. So we pulled back out onto Stowe and waited at the stop sign to head down Winchester to Grand.


Vortex and Blood Hound kept the pace moving along rather briskly after we were headed west on Grand and I found myself about five riders back from the lead. I would have been content to hold that position except Centaur started the second sprint just before the rise on Grand. D’Artagnon and Shawn took off to give chase and for reasons beyond me I took off after them. I was lucky that I had a chance to recover from the sprint on Stowe and managed to catch the leader at the top of the rise and sat up to wait for the rest of the group. from that point till we got to Briggs the group split in two with a gap of about 150 yards between us.

That gap shortened a bit but the following group caught the light at Florida and we didn’t catch the lead group till we got to the Am/Pm at Florida and Menifee. The next challenge would be McCall. The group was looking forward to it and I considered hitting the hill with the As. However disaster struck for me when we caught the light just before the bottom of the hill red. Everyone had to take off from just about a dead stop and wolf caught me just as we topped the hill. You simply can’t trust a Wolf.

Over the hill and a regroup just past Bradley and we discovered Huntress had to abandon the ride and head for home. At Murrieta Puma left us as well and part way up the rise Sea Lion made a jump and created a good gap before he was caught by D’Artagnon, Shawn and Centaur. The group simply rode a pace line down Cherry Hill and out onto Bradley then out to Newport. About half of the group stopped for coffee at Jack In the box and half continued on.

The ride home was a two part mini race with Surgeon taking the climb on the back side of the Saddle and D’Artagnon started a hard pull that separated the group as we past Leon. We caught the lead group at Winchester but split again shortly after the dry wash.

Sea Lion, Surgeon, Highlander and I caught the light at Warren and fell behind but could still see the leaders as they made the light at Sanderson and Sea Lion continued for home while we had to wait for a green.

The remaining three of us rode down Sanderson and through the parking lot at Lowes. As we turned onto Acacia and finally got ready to turn onto Gilmore I could just see D’Artagnon in the distance heading east. We caught Vortex and Centaur at Florida waiting for a light and stopped to talk briefly before I headed home for a shower and lunch. Just over 42 miles on my computer and a hard workout trying to chase the A group. Somehow I am not sure I am ready to ride with the As. I know it is harder to take pictures when I do.