8/10/2012 By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) There are advantages to living in a place where you can ride a bike all year long. Some of those advantages are you don’t have to have fenders on your bicycle; you never have to mount studded tires or learn how to defrost your bottom bracket. You can easily get in 6000 miles a year. You can ride to the mountains, the lakes or the beach. But there are things you have to learn to live with like heat waves. This week has been one of those times. But cycling is not for quitters and our group just has to learn to adapt to turn what might be a bad day for some into a good ride for us. So I shortened the ride for today a bit and decided to back things down so when could but in two hours without melting.

There were only six of us as we moved down Gilmore to Acacia and over to Kirby. Gambler and Barracuda would have to hold back if the group was going to stay together today because I was pretty determined to keep the pace down and keep the hydration up so we could all make it home safely. However that wasn’t much of a problem as we turned onto Cypress and moved out to Johnston and Sanderson before turning north to Wentworth and heading to the Airport road.

So far the ride was progressing nicely as we past Hanger 1 and I managed to take us out onto Stetson and get us rolling to Warren road. We never really cranked in on but we were doing a respectable 18 or 19mph as we got to the Warren stop sign. As we started rolling again Highlander took over and more or less pulled us all the way to California and allowed me to take over as we started the run to Stowe and headed west.

For a change we didn’t start a hard run on Stowe and Surgeon pulled us along with Highlander while we chatted and fell into a double pace line. At this point it was still only in the 80s but the sky was clear and the sun was bright so we all knew it was going to get hotter and we knew that it felt better to keep moving rather than stop in the sun for any period of time. Still we stopped at Winchester to regroup and make sure everyone was hydrating before heading south on Winchester. I took us to the dump road and we headed west again.

I got us to the western Arena when Gambler pulled past me and pulled us to Leon and south to Simpson. Gambler, Highlander, Surgeon and Barracuda opened a gap on Dura Max and I till we got to Heritage and turned north towards McCall so we could jog over to Menifee and head up to the AM/PM on Florida for our first stop for fluids.

Our next move would be to head north on Menifee. I got out in front and pulled most of the way to Mapes when Gambler pulled up next to me and pointed out that it felt like someone had turned on the heater switch and it started to become a ride of survival. I had already gone through two water bottles and was well into my third as we hit the long run over the rise on Menifee and made the dash towards Central and then Nuevo. I was in a quick cruise mode as we rolled past Central and I noticed we were stretched out a bit so we backed it down till we got to Lakeview and headed north.

We would have one more stop at the Valero before hitting Ramona and heading for home. Barracuda started us heading back east and we were doing fine till we hit 21 or 22 mph and we started to split apart a bit and I fell back to team up with Dura Max while Highlander and Surgeon were ahead of us and Gambler was way out front with Barracuda. Dura Max pulled me for a little while before I took over and tried to close with the group. They made it through Warren and we did not so we missed closing and missed catching them at Sanderson. I did catch Highlander because he was waiting for me under a tree on Ramona and I stopped to pour water over my head, back and chest. Dura Max continued on so he could get home before it got too hot while Highlander and I rode back to Burger King alone. The Shadow pulled up just as I was getting ready to leave and he rode with me till I got to my house. Yes it was hot but I have been out when it was hotter and I will be out the next time as well.