5/18/2012 By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) I always leave the option for an easy ride open for Fridays. I sometimes don’t know why I bother because normally people seem excessively frisky on Fridays and I truthfully didn’t hold out much hope for a slow simple ride today. My only hope was that only Coyote and Dura Max were there when I got to the parking lot and no one else showed up for the longest time. Just before 8:30am Dura Max left us to go on a different ride and as he left Barracuda, Gambler and D’Artagnon rode up. Last but not least Surgeon unloaded his car and we were almost ready to go. After playing around with D’Artagnon’s new Garmin we headed down Gilmore and across Acacia to Kirby before heading up to Cypress and west.

We were still rolling along at a good pace as we headed west on Cypress and pretty quickly made it to Johnston and the light on Sanderson. Like normally we managed to catch the light red and had to wait till it turned green before I could start the pull that would lead us past Stetson and Wally World to Domenigoni. Before I got to Mustang I looked behind me to see some pretty eager riders following me.

I stayed in front till we got to Domenigoni and started us west again. After about maybe a quarter of a mile I gave up the lead to Surgeon and fell to the back. Soon Barracuda had the lead and we were smoothly rolling along past Warren and over the dry wash. We had a rock steady 20 MPH run most of the way to Winchester before Surgeon flatted. Once that was fixed we started out again only this time we had picked up Bandit. True to form he kicked up the pace all the way to the bottom of the saddle and we strung out crossing the saddle and heading down the other side. We didn’t regroup till the light at Antelope and then ran hard to Murrieta without stopping. Our next stop was at the park on LaLadera.

We started off north to ride up towards Honneyrun and the Owl sanctuary. Bandit was still pretty fresh and we began thinking about the little climb on Hospital hill. One drawback to having Strava was that we knew where to times segments were on most of our rides and while some of us aren’t even close to challenging the best times.

So we decided to start plotting a way to bump one of our riders to the top of the leader board. With Gambler, D’Artagnon and Barracuda to start a lead out maybe we could get Bandit who was second up to first at least for a short time. I listen to Gambler as he started to plot our next move and we all headed closer to McCall.

We finally headed east on McCall and held the pace down as we made our way to Bradley. We knew once we made it over the freeway and through the light the run was on. Coyote and I started out first but that was because we were well ahead of the rest of the group. By the next light the lead out group caught us and started to pull away. Coyote and I caught the light and Surgeon past us so we fell in on his back wheel. Finally I decided to pick it up a bit but decided to save something in case the big dogs dropped the hammer on the way to Simpson and then to Winchester. I didn’t have to worry because Coyote left us to visit a friend and Bandit headed for home. We continued on to Simpson and then to Winchester before stopping at Chris’s for coffee. After a brief stop we headed back up Winchester and turned onto Stowe so we could work our way over to California.

My legs were a bit tight till we turned onto Stowe but I started feel better as we moved closer to California. We dropped down to Stetson and started a quick run to Warren. I looked down and noticed my average speed was still in excess of 17 MPH and this was supposed to be an easy day. I past the airport road with the group and then Gambler, D’Artagnon and I headed straight to Sanderson where I planned to drop down to Johnston and head for home.

I was still hitting on all cylinders as I rounded the corner on Johnston and headed east. I was holding a steady 18 as I passed Kirby and don’t slow much till I got to Elk and finally I started to slow down at Palm before turning down my street and home. I got there with 37 miles on the computer. Not an easy ride but a good one none the less.