12/14/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


It was still cold but we had been rained out Monday so we needed a good ride for today to help make up for missing a day on the bikes. It seemed like a perfect time to try a new ride that I had mapped that would give us a half century. I didn’t know how many would show up because the winter months thin out the group quite a bit. Even though I left a bit late I got to the parking lot first which I took as a bad sign. But by 8:30 we had a reasonable group with Blood Hound, Huntress, Highlander, Vortex, Donovan, Rocket and I heading for Acacia and then Kirby to begin the ride and meet up Piranha and the Snake.


I felt pretty good going south on Kirby and thought this might be a good ride personally as well as for the group. It was colder than I like but with the sun was going to come out I could hope it would get warmer. I fell in behind Blood Hound and stayed in his draft all the way to Cypress before turning west to ride through the housing track and make our way to Johnston and finally to Sanderson. Once we made the turn Blood Hound kept the pace up a bit and pulled us to Mustang where we caught the light and I took over the lead to Domenigoni.

Once on Domenigoni I pulled for about a ¼ mile before falling to the back and following everyone to Warren were we saw Piranha and had to chase him to the dry wash. Once we caught up to him he fell in line and we quickly moved on to Winchester where Donovan took over and pulled us to the Saddle and I had just enough steam to get into the sprint to the top. We picked up the Snake at Lindenburger and lost Rocket one light later. We turned onto Menifee and regrouped letting the A group go at their own pace while the rest of us followed to turn on Holland and again on Antelope. The last we saw of them was at Scott Road. We regrouped just before White Wood park and the B group rode to Murrieta Hot Springs and then over to Winchester before regrouping again at east Benson.

We left the gas station on Benson and headed up to Thompson and left to Leon. Up to this point I was still feeling pretty good and cruising along easily. As we headed north on Leon I was thinking about what a beautiful day it had been so far. It was still cooler than I like but my legs seemed warm and I didn’t feel tired. But just as all of these good thoughts were going through my head I ran over some road debris and within 20 feet I had a flat. I took a little time fixing it and decided to use one of my super light tubes thinking a new tube was a new tube. I would regret that choice later.

Once the tire was fixed we took off again heading for Scott. I got back to the frount and pulled us along as we took each of the rollers between Thompson and Scott in stride. By the time we got close to the last rolling rise I felt like the wind was starting to turn against us and it was time to down shift to save my legs.

Once we turned onto Scott I pulled to the top of the hill and then Vortex pulled in front to pull for a while. We turned onto Menifee and just before the downhill Huntress jumped out and took the lead. By the time we re-passed Holland I had at least 100 yards to recover the gap and Highlander and I pulled onto their back wheel just before Domenigoni. We made a left onto Lindenburger and headed towards Simpson and my sinuses decided to open up and flow so I could only breathe through my mouth. Not only did I suddenly have trouble breathing when we turned east I started to feel like I was riding through mud. Highlander fell back to pull me to Winchester and to Chris’s for coffee and I discovered my tire was about half flat again. The flat looked like a pinch flat and I changed it while Huntress, Piranha and Vortex headed for home in time for some appointments they had. Actually Highlander fixed the flat while I drank coffee.

I got home with 54 miles on my computer and a running nose. I was tired from pushing a half flat tire in pursuit of the B group and developed a cough later in the day. I may have put in the miles but it looks like I will have to recover a bit if I plan on riding Friday.