9/09/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


Another Friday and another goods ride was planned. I was planning on taking it a bit easy today because of the hard rides we had Monday and Wednesday. As soon as I noticed who was riding with us today I knew the ride could turn into a drag race anywhere along the route. Cossack was on his new Trek and Gambler was on his new BMC so we all knew they were going to want to stretch their legs and with Barracuda, Rocket, RCMP, Daredevil and Centaur in the pack we had a very strong A group. Blood Hound would be in the hunt all day. Pulling out of the parking lot the group looked strong and eager.


Turning off of Gilmore and onto Acacia I had Blood Hound right behind me all the way to the light on Kirby. Like most days we catch the light red but have a car waiting ahead of us so we know the light will trip. Team four seasons was only down one rider and team Full Throttle only had two. Still is looked like it could turn into a fast ride very quickly. As we turned up Kirby and headed for Cypress the group started to pick up a little speed and Blood Hound, Vortex and Surgeon kept pace with the front of the pack. Rocket and Cossack didn’t start moving up till we were headed towards Johnston on Cypress.

It looked to me as if I would be pushing pretty hard all day with this group. Most of them were very fit and the only thing holding any of them back would be that some were newer to cycling than the rest of us. Quite often I start to move towards the front once we get close to Johnston and Sanderson so that I can set the pace down Sanderson and the first part of Domenigoni.

Once on Domenigoni I started us out heading west and put down a simple 21 to 22 MPH pace line before turning it over to Blood Hound. I was counting riders as I moved to the rear of the line. Looking back I noticed several riders well behind me and soon Barracuda and RCMP pulled up next to me and offered a pull. I didn’t take it because there were still two sets of two riders even farther back and I waited for them. Rocket pulled up with Steve, (SR-71) and Gambler pulled up with Bud in tow. I told Gambler I had them and he took off after the lead group.

Rocket and I took turns pulling till we saw Blood Hound and Sea Lion fixing a flat. Sea Lion was almost finished pulling the tube out when we got there and in less than 5 minutes he had a new tube in and the tire pumped up so we could regroup with the rest of the group on top of the saddle.


As we recovered from the climbing sprint up the saddle we talked how nice the weather had turned out today as opposed to Monday and Wednesday. It only took a few minutes for everyone to feel rested and ready to go so we headed down the back of the saddle and headed for Menifee where Rocket turned around for an appointment

We ended up splitting into two groups on Menifee and about six of us were trailing after the little hill just past Holland. Highlander, Vortex, Sea Lion, SR-71, Bud and I formed a pace line on Scott Road and made it to Haun together. Highlander and Vortex pulled us almost all the way back to Newport where we had planned on stopping for water.

Once we were back on the road it was a quick ride up to Bradley before turning north towards McCall. Slowly we built up speed till we started to stretch out a bit. By the time we crossed back over the freeway three of us caught the light and had to chase the other three all the way to the top of the McCall hill. We regrouped and headed for Linderburger and then ran hard to Leon and the dump road. I started a hard fast pull on the dump road and Highlander held my back wheel like a trailer all the way to Winchester. We expected to meet with the A group at Chris’s.

Turns out Gambler, Barracuda and RCMP had been pushing the A group hard and they looked like they were enjoying their coffee and conversation quite well.

It is always good to see Sea Lion and Daredevil in the group. I know they can be counted on to help keep the group together or assist when someone needs help with a flat or minor adjustment to keep someone going through a ride. They are good people to talk to over coffee.

We only stayed long enough to finish a cup of coffee and then we got ready to head for home. I was the last one to leave the parking lot and had to chance to chase the whole pack all the way to Stowe.

I quickly made it to the tail end of the pace line only to notice Sea Lion was slowed down a bit by a cold. I pulled up and let him draft me till we caught Highlander, SR-71, Surgeon, Centaur and Full throttle back at Sanderson. Once the light changed we headed for Lowes and around the building to Acacia.

Once back out onto Acacia it didn’t take long before we were at Kirby where RCMP and Daredevil turned north while the rest of us continued on to Gilmore and back to Burger King. We made some small talk till I headed for home where I ended up with 41 miles on the computer. But maybe the most interesting part of the ride was out new rider SR-71. Today was the longest ride he had done to date and he even said he wanted more.