1/18/2012
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


It was cold when I got up this morning. In fact it was below freezing so I got out base layers, long fingered gloves and my Balaclava before I even started to get dressed. Huntress had requested a Half Century for this Wednesday and so I plotted a ride from Hemet to Temecula and French Valley and back. It would be interesting to see how many were interested on such a morning. I was surprised to see Dura Max talking to Wolf when I arrived but it was obvious he was ready to ride. Still by 8:30 Huntress, Highlander, Vortex, Blood Hound, Gambler, wolf and I were ready to go. As we pulled out onto Gilmore I got a bit of a jump on the group and made it through the light while everyone else caught the red.


Once they got back on the way we rode down to Acacia and headed west. I and just about everyone else was glad we didn’t take the false warmth of the Burger King windows to heart and shed our jackets. It was still pretty cold as we stopped at the light on Kirby and waited for it to turn green so we could head south and start working our way to Sanderson.

The turn through the housing tract on Cypress was a bit less intense and conversation flowed easily in the group as we moved towards Johnston. I talked to Vortex about the temperature drop as we moved south and we finally caught the light at Sanderson and Johnston. Once it changed we started the final run south towards Domanigoni after catching the light at Stetson green. I had every hope of keeping the pace on Domenigoni down a bit and wanted to give everyone a chance to pull for two minutes or so with the help of Highlander and the rest.

We did real well as we worked our way west to Warren and were still all together till we picked up Bandit at Winchester. Once through the light Bandit and Gambler started to pick up the pace and some of the group took off after them. I could see no reason to drop the hammer at the light and slowly worked my way back to the back of Highlander and Vortex but letting Blood Hound continue the chase of the other two. I pulled pretty much to Leon before being chastised by Wolf and Highlander and gave up the lead to Huntress and Vortex. I ended up chasing Wolf to the top of the saddle where we all regrouped.

We dropped down the back side of the saddle and picked up Badger at Lindenburger. We all stayed together till we turned onto Menifee. I let the A riders know where we would regroup and they pulled away on Antelope as the rest of us strung out behind at quite a distance. By Scott Road all the B group was back together and we had Wolf to pull us all the way to the turn towards Whitewood. Once on the downhill side we picked up speed and increased our average quite a bit. We pulled out onto Murrieta Hot Springs and picked up another new rider who has been looking for a group to ride with. Wolf fell back and stayed with me as we headed back to the gas station on East Benton to regroup again.

Once everyone was ready we all mounted up and started to pull out of the parking lot to ride up Winchester to Thompson. As I pulled up to the stop light Highlander informed me that we were short a few people and after we turned and made it up to Leon we stopped to see what the problem was. Turns out Huntress had a flat and they were waiting for her to fix it before joining us. So we pulled over to wait with the new rider.

While we waited we told the new rider about our start times and meeting place and introduced him to some of the other riders. It was still pretty cool but at least the sun had come out and we could shed at least one layer. By the time we were all put back together we could see the rest of the group coming up the road so it was time to hit is once again if we wanted to keep a century pace for this half century.

We didn’t stay together all that long before Gambler and Bandit wanted to pick it up again and at first Vortex was out front pulling them. Soon however he dropped back and Highlander pulled in front of me and we reformed into the two groups. We caught up to the As at the stop sign where they had to pull up for Blood Hound as he recovered some object he dropped. They caught and passed us on the first hill and we followed till we turned onto Menifee and headed north. We could just see the last rider in the distance as we pulled up on top of the hill overlooking Holland as we dropped down on what is always Huntress’s favorite part of the ride, a fast downhill.

Once back to Domenigoni we simply turned onto Lindenburger and rode over to Simpson and headed to Winchester to ride over to Chris’s. I for one was happy to stop for coffee and conversation and we spent a few minutes doing just that before jumping back on the bikes and heading for Stowe and home. Once on Stowe we got into a fast cruise and let our legs do a little last mile work towards California.

The pace line held all the way to California and then to Stetson. The pace was fast but comfortable and in little or no time we were back to Warren and heading for the airport road. As the rest of our group headed for the airport I continued on towards Sanderson where I would turn to Johnston and home. By the time I pulled up to the front door I had 52 miles on the computer. I also had a good ride with good friends.