7/30/2012 By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) After the great ride we had Friday I was really looking forward to the ride today. I started out by doing 30 minutes of stretching while watching Olympic Water Polo. After cooling down I had breakfast and put my kit on before pumping up my tires and heading out of the door for Burger King. Coyote, Dura Max and Ocelot were already there and Highlander arrived with Tax Man shortly after. Once Surgeon and Nike arrived we were ready to hit the road for a easy flat east ride.

We headed down Gilmore to Acacia and I noticed things were unusually quiet in the pack. But As I got to Kirby I started to believe it was because it was such a beautiful morning and the weather was perfect. I did tease Tax Man about making the ride a flat one just for him but it truth it was for me as well because Mondays seem easier to control than Fridays. We headed up to Cypress and worked our way to Johnston and Sanderson only to catch the light red. Once it turned we were off towards Domenigoni.

Once we got t the corner of Sanderson and Domenigoni I could tell everyone was happy with a more relaxed pace so I could see no reason to push hard to Searl. I pulled till we got to State Street and let Highlander take us south towards McSweeney. As I fell back to the back I was thinking how much nicer it is to ride with a group of people you like than riding by yourself. My dreaming was interrupted as we had to make a turn onto McSweeney in front of a large truck that had split the group. But he did wait for us and we rode around the housing tract to get back onto State.

As we started south I wasn’t sure what to expect once we got past Domenigoni again. I didn’t want to be in front and to be honest a sprint wasn’t in my game plan. But after the light changed no one else wanted to take the pull so I started us rolling and slowly built up speed as we closed in on the rise. I considered pulling at a steady 21 all the way to Chambers but just as we started up the ride Highlander attacked. I was going to let him go but the magnetic pull of his bike passing cause me to start to spin up to try and hold him off before he could drop me. Whatever the outcome I didn’t get dropped and we worked our way over to Santa Fe to make the turn on Stetson to head east. Highlander, Surgeon and Tax Man didn’t go with us on Columbia but Dura Max, Ocelot, Coyote, Nike and I turned and worked our way to Crest and started towards Lake Street.

Once on Lake and back out to Stetson all we had to do was hook up with the missing three riders at Fairview. Just as planned they were waiting for us and I decided to take a shot at the Fairview TT. Turns out someone has notified Strava that that section was dangerous and they are no longer posting the leader board. Oh Well I made a pretty good run at it anyway. We continued on Fairview till it turned into Cedar and then out onto Ramona. As we worked our way towards the bridge crossing towards Soboba Surgeon pulled us till we got to Hemet Street where he had to break for home. I got the lead till the light over the river bed and over to Soboba to make the run west to State Street.

Shortly after we got started Highlander and Tax Man passed me and by the last roller Dura Max and Nike went by. I followed for a while before catching Nike and then Dura Max as we regrouped at State and headed south back to Ramona to make the loop back to Carl’s. Tax Man pulled us most of the way and in fact split the group at the light after the bridge crossing. I drafted off of him and Highlander till we got back to New Chicago where we stopped for coffee before heading for home on Lincoln.

We lost Dura Max at Park before Tax Man and Highlander started to pull away when Coyote, Nike and I got caught at the stop sign on Park but we reeled them in by the time we got to Devonshire and we all stayed together till the three of us got stopped again by a car in front of the police station. Highlander and Tax Man got the light at State green and we were at least a block behind by the time we got to Palm. We all got to the parking lot and talked for a minute or two before I left for home and a hot shower. Great day for a ride and I felt pretty relaxed for 40 miles.