5/11/2012 By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) The weather men said it would be a little cooler today, at least the first half of a day, and when I looked outside this morning it looked like they were correct. It was overcast and at least 10 degrees cooler than Wednesday. Still I figured I would chance it and not wear arm or leg warmers. Right at 8am I headed for Burger King. To my surprise Blood Hound was back and ready to ride when I got there. Centaur was unloading his bike as Highlander pulled into the parking lot and Dura Max and Ocelot rode up before the others were unloaded. While everyone was getting ready Barracuda and Bounty Hunter pulled up and I thought that was all that would be riding today. Ferret pulled up at the last moment and we got ready to pull out onto Latham and turned down Lyon to start the ride towards Ramona.

Surgeon was with us today and he seemed rather energetic as we moved north on Lyon. After slowing down to chat with me for a few blocks he pulled ahead and picked up the pace at least two miles an hour. He said his legs were strong and he was running hard enough to make me believe it. As we got close to 7th street I finally got back in front and pulled us to Ramona Boulevard and made the turn towards Sanderson.

I managed to get us to Sanderson and turned to the Expressway before catching the light. We didn’t have to wait long before heading west and beginning the Ramona Expressway run. I pulled at a rather steady pace all the way to Warren before giving up the lead to Blood Hound and falling to the back. Everything went well till we got to Bridge Street and Ocelot decided to check for a flat. Her tire looked fine but some of us fell off of the back of the pack and had to slowly try to close. Before we got to Lakeview Ocelot’s tire did give up and some of us stopped to watch another Dura Max tire changing clinic.

Once we got back underway we quickly made it to the gas station on Lakeview and regrouped. We took a short break and got back underway heading south on Lakeview. We didn’t get far before Highlander flatted as well. He said he was just thinking about how long it had been since his last flat when his tire gave up. I told him never even let the thought enter your mind or something will attack you tire just as soon as you do. While he changed the tire Bandit rounded the corner off of Ramona and headed in our direction. He was coming back from a Lambs Canyon practice climb. He got to us just about the time Highlander was ready to start again so we headed for Nuevo together and worked our way over to Central.

It was a nice downhill rest going down to Menifee and turning south once again. After the first stop sign Bandit pulled in front of me and took us all the way to Mapes before leaving us to go home. I took us to Briggs and down towards Florida where Blood Hound and Ferret past me and got to the light first. We regrouped in front of the High school and then worked our way through the housing tract and over to the dump road. Surgeon pulled us to Leon and I took us to the rise and the beginning of the sprint zone. I turned to take a picture.

Blood Hound made the first break and the sprint was on. I stayed with the front runners till we got to the Western Bar on the left and then sat back and cruised to Chris’s for coffee and conversation. Everyone seemed to be having a good ride up to this point and we took about 20 minutes before heading up to Domenigoni and back to Hemet. I took the first pull and got us all the way to the dry wash before Blood Hound, Barracuda and Ferret pulled past me and I jumped on Barracuda’s wheel and followed the lead three all the way back to Sanderson. We all closed up on Sanderson except for Dura Max and Ocelot who were heading for State Street. I left the group and rode down Johnston with Blood Hound till I got to my street and home. It was a great day for a ride and the pace was pretty reasonable so I would give it a 8 on the scale of 1 to 10. Good day to be out on a bike.