9/28/2012 By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Once again we had reached the end of the week and it had been a hard one. In fact we had two hard weeks in a row getting ready for the Perris Century. Two weeks ago I bonked on the second half of the ride but last week I did better. This week I had a good day on the traditional Lake Parris ride and I was looking forward to shorter less energetic ride for today. We planned the Backwards Soboba ride and left it open as to how hard we would push. I got to Burger King and waited till we had 8 riders before we headed down Gilmore to start our day.

I managed to move out rather quickly and made it onto Acacia and then to the light at Kirby ahead of everyone. Once heading south on Kirby I once again took the lead and pulled us towards Cypress. I was pleased when I noticed that Gambler, Centaur and Huntress weren’t all that interested in chasing me down because I was thinking the ride would turn into an easy cruise. I took us to Sanderson and Johnston and ended up dropping Dura Max, Huntress, T-3 and Centaur at the light and had to wait for them in front of Wally World. Once they caught up we headed for Domenigoni to start a short run east to State Street.

As we moved east I gave up the lead and fell back with Dura Max and T-3 only to follow Huntress, Gambler, Centaur, Digger and Highlander all the way to State and made the turn South about 50 yards after they did. The extended their lead as they approached McSweeney and started the ride through the housing tract. They soft pedaled enough that we caught them on the way out and back to State Street and north.

No the strategy started. I knew that once we got to Domenigoni and State Street someone might break out to run the State TT segment. Gambler was on his TT bike but he was at the back of the pack I just didn’t know where he would be if we caught the light red at Domenigoni and catch it red we did. So when we took off I fell back into the number 4 position and waited to see if someone was going to make a break for it. As I kept an eye on Highlander, Huntress and Centaur I heard the tell tale sound of Gambler’s Aero wheels coming up on the outside so before he could build up a good head of steam I jumped on his back wheel. We rolled by the rest of the group at close to 30 MPH and I held on till I knew I would have anything left so I backed off, and kept an eye on the group behind me. Not long before the rise I noticed Highlander, Centaur and Huntress gaining on me. About 50 yards back Huntress came out standing on her pedals. I kicked it up and gear and held her attack off till we got to Chambers and started east again to get to Stetson. We quickly made our way to Columbia and turned to ride down Crest while Highlander stayed on Stetson and headed for Fairview. We continued on working our way towards Lake to get back to Stetson.

We came up on Lake and Gambler left us to go home. He will be riding a Century Saturday so he didn’t want to tire his legs. We turned down Stetson looking to meet up with Highlander at Fairview. But by the time we got there he had left with Dura Max and T-3. Centaur had to change a flat so we would have to hammer down if we had any chance of catching them before they got through Soboba to State. But we gave it a try as I pulled as long as I could till we were almost to Ramona. Centaur pulled from there all the way through Soboba road and back to north State Street.

We were a bit tired after that hard run to State and so I pulled again till we got to Ramona again to head back east. I had no idea of we were catching up to Highlander, Dura Max and T-3 but we were pushing as hard as we could and still holding the group together. We knew that if we dropped anyone it would be very hard for them to hold the pace by themselves so we had to modulate the pace a bit but still we had a reasonable average as we got back to the light at Main and stayed on Ramona trying to get back to Carl’s.

I began to feel like it was getting harder to pedal so I gave up the lead once again to let Huntress and Centaur pull us back Past Lake, Esplanade and Hemet Street. Now we were on the final stretch before stopping for coffee and conversation at Carl’s. As we pulled up only Highlander’s bike was parked outside because Dura Max and T-3 left so she could go to an appointment. We took the time to refresh ourselves and talk about the ride and the upcoming Century. We headed back out to the bikes only to discover I had a flat waiting for me. I changed the tube and we rode down Lincoln to Park before working our way to Devonshire.

We set our minds to it and worked our way down Devonshire all the way to Santa Fe and south to Latham. Once on our way west I knew we would all stay together all the way back to Burger King because Huntress had to pick up her back pack and Digger was collecting a chain cleaning tool.

Once Digger and Huntress removed their supplies from Highlander’s van the three of us moved back out onto Latham to head east and home. Digger left us at Lyon and I stayed with Huntress till we got to Palm where I headed for home. It had turned out to be perfect weather for a ride and I was in no hurry to get home. But at last I did and noticed I had 42 miles on the computer. Not a bad day when you feel disappointed that the ride is over.