10/14/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


It was good to be back on the bike after a week off. I was gone for a race in Death Valley and after I got home I got home I got sick. I could hardly stand up Tuesday and I wasn’t much better Wednesday. Today I felt a bit better and it was a bit cooler so I thought I would chance it. It made for an interesting ride. I met everyone at the parking lot the normal time and we talked briefly before I sorted out the ride order for the day


The A group looked pretty fierce today and I was feeling anything but fierce so I decided to send the A group out to State Street while I took the B group out Sanderson. I knew I wouldn’t be much help today so I expected the A group would catch us before the Saddle. The rest of the B group must have had a different idea because they wasted little time forming at the front of the pack as we headed down Gilmore towards Acacia.

This is a little different than normal because the A group traditionally runs hard for Acacia to jog over to Lyon and work their way to Thornton and then State. But they seemed a bit slow to get started and in fact Blood Hound forgot to turn with them so they were one man down for their rotation.

Once split into different directions the B group started to move smoothly over to Kirby before going south to Cypress and finally over to Sanderson. I had Blood Hound way out front with Surgeon, Bounty Hunter, Sea Lion, SR-71, Dura Max and Ocelot as we turned onto Domenigoni and headed for Warren. To my surprise the whole B group had no problem runningat 20 to 23 MPH almost all the way to the dry wash where I took the pull and dropped us back to 21. Sea Lion, Surgeon, Bounty Hunter and SR-71 pulled away after Winchester but Dura Max, Ocelot and I topped the saddle less than 20 seconds after they did. We did find Blood Hound waiting for us.

Someone must have lit a match to the A group because I barely had time to take a drink before we could see three of them starting up the hill. Barracuda and his pink Jersey got to us first. Strung out behind were the rest of the A group but not that far behind. It seems their average speed was about what our top speed had been. Thank goodness for red lights. We headed down the saddle and through the housing tract to head south on Briggs only to lose Blood Hound and Team Full Throttle somewhere.

Everyone rejoined us on Antelope and we headed back to Domenigoni to Lindenburger before turning on Simpson and heading to Chris’s. We had our coffee and conversation before heading for home on Winchester. The group wasn’t wasting any time getting up to Stowe and I managed to catch D’Artagnon’s wheel. Just before we got to Stowe I started feeling short of breath and decided I wasn’t quite as over being sick as I had thought. Lucky for me Sea Lion and Surgeon decided to pull me home and I followed them all the way back to Sanderson and then to Lowes.

From there it was an easy cruise to Acacia and back to Gilmore before turning towards Burger King. Surgeon was kind enough to tease me and offered to buy me a discount Hamburger. I haven’t been able to keep solid food down in three days and he knew full well all I needed was a greasy hamburger to make my day complete. I was just glad to hold on for 35 miles and headed for home thinking of a hot shower and some jello.