9/21/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


I wasn’t looking forwards to today’s ride at all. I didn’t sleep well the night before and for some reason my legs were sore. The only problem was my complaints were small in comparison to my desire to be with the group and doing the ride. I like how our group works together with the A riders helping the B riders improve. The A riders can still work on their sprints and their climbing and come back to work with the B group on their sprints and climbing. The system seems to work because of how well Gambler, D’Artagnon and Bandit did in the Tom’s Farm TT last Sunday. If nothing else I headed for the parking lot just to be with people I admire and call friends. I pulled out of the parking lot with about 12 of those friends.


I was moving along pretty good as I followed T-3 around the corner onto Acacia and headed for Kirby. Blood Hound got to the light first and we had to wait for a few minutes for it to turn green.

So far my legs seemed pretty good and I wasn’t dead tired so I continued on towards Cypress following Blood Hound just ahead of the rest of the group. I only wondered how well I would do once we got out onto Domenigoni. On Sanderson I felt fine.

As we past Mustang I tried to pick it up a bit but soon realized I wasn’t going to be able to fire on all cylinders but maybe I could cruise through most of the ride. As we got near the High School I kicked it up again and soon headed for the left turn lane to turn out onto Domenigoni. As T-3 and Highlander pulled up behind me I heard Piranha, calling my name. It seems he was having back pains and had to leave us. That would put team 4 seasons down one and make the big team The Musketeers. Once the light changed we headed east on Domenigoni.

Gambler pulled up next to me and offered to take the A group to the Marina while the B group went to McSweeny. This would be a great relief to me because we could stay at a cruising speed while the A group raced up the hill and we could regroup on our way back to State and Domenigoni. After the split the B group rolled on to State and then to McSweeny. T-3 was still near the front as we turned into the housing tract.

As I expected we met the A group on State and Domenigoni and headed for Chambers and the turn east. As we got about halfway down State Rocket started a hard fast pull. Before we got to the last sign where the sprint normally starts Full Throttle came flying by with Gambler in hot pursuit and I had to break out and try to give chase. It seems a bit early to me and it was all I could do to close on Gambler just as he got to the base of the rise. He got up on the pedals to sprint and jumped past Full Throttle and was only able to hang on to his back wheel. We regrouped on Chambers and headed up to Stetson. Rocket left us before we got to Columbia and somewhere before Crest we picked up Shadow and one of his friends.

I didn’t realize at this point that the sprint on State had drained me a bit like the Star Ship Enterprise with only half of my dilithum crystals left and no Scotty to help me get power back. Still I was running smoothly as we worked our way over to Lake and headed back to Stetson. I started to feel just a bit sore after climbing the little hill on Lake and slowly fell back to talk Shadow as D’Artagnon and T-3 rolled past me.

We made it to Stetson and regrouped once more on Fairview. After introducing Shadows friend we got ready to head north to Florida. It was a very slow start because no one wanted to take the lead out until Jack Rabbit finally moved to the front and started the pull. I was in the number two slot and figured I only had one hope of winning the sprint and that would be a early break out. I dropped the hammer and the chase was on. I crossed the bridge first but Gambler soon came around and I had to fall in on his back wheel. Full Throttle pulled up next to me but fell off just before passing and I chased Gambler most of the way to Mayberry. It was at this point my dilithum crystals ran dry and I ended up turning the group lead over to Gambler and decided to follow the group to Soboba and back to State.

I caught T-3 and Highlander at State I ended up riding back to Ramona and then east to Carl’s with T-3, Ocelot, Dura Max, Shadow and his friend. We stopped for coffee and conversation before everyone broke up and headed for home. I rode back to Burger King with T-3, Vortex, Highlander, Shadow and his friend and then home to end up with 43 miles on the computer. I was tired and had sore legs so it was more or less like a full circle except for a chance to ride with my good friends. Now all I have to do is see if I have any spare dilithum crystals in my junk drawer.