11/21/2012 By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Every so often I question my motives for doing what I do. I have been riding three to four days a week for the last four or five years. For the longest time I thought cycling was all I needed with maybe some swimming in the summer. But this week I joined a gym to add some weight bearing exercise and Tuesday I put in an hour of upper body work with weights. By Tuesday night I could tell you were every mussel group was that I had worked on and still I picked one of our more challenging east rides for Wednesday. At least it was a good looking morning as I headed for Burger King and I had high hopes for another good turnout. There was no worry because one again we had about the same size group as Monday.

We left the parking lot pretty close to 9am and headed down Gilmore and to Acacia. We took a quick turn to Kirby and headed south with 14 riders in a large group. Von Richthofen brought his junior lead out team with him but he was short one rider from the other day. We made up for it with the addition of Jennifer. We had a good A group with Gambler, Centaur, D’Artagnon and Rocky with 501, Zach ready to run a break anytime they wanted. I managed to pull us west on Cypress and back out onto Sanderson and down to Wentworth towards the Airport. I was hoping someone wanted to take the lead out onto Stetson but that didn’t look like it would happen.

So as we got close to Stetson everyone fell in line behind me and allowed me to start the pull towards Warren. There was no reason to drop the hammer and I simply didn’t have the energy to drop it anyway. I set in on a 19 MPH cruise and rolled us up to the warren Stop sign before starting out again after a rather large truck passed in front of us. Still everyone seemed more than willing to save their energy for the turn on California.

The double pace line normally gives the intention of the group away. No one wants to be too far back if or when the Stowe sprint starts. I know I didn’t want to be the lead out rider but I also knew there was no Strava Segment on Stowe so there might not be a sprint. I decided that as soon as I turned onto Stowe I would give up the lead and fall back to see what would happen. Looking back as we got close to the corner it didn’t look like anyone else was eager to be the lead out either.

As soon as we were headed west on Stowe I started to move back in the pack and let Highlander take the lead. I managed to get back behind Digger, Von Richthofen and 501 before I could see Gambler pulling out to move forward. What I didn’t see was D’Artagnon moving with him so I wasn’t sure any sprint would take place. Soon Centaur pulled out and forward as well and we were both just three riders behind Gambler. Highlander started to spur me on to jump on Centaur’s wheel and for at least a few moments I was willing to forget my complaining upper body recovering from the workout Tuesday and fall in on Centaur. When Gambler picked it up Centaur went with him and I stayed on his back wheel. The sprint didn’t start till rather late on Stowe and when Centaur decided to move around Gambler I still had enough left to go with him. Just before the parking lot I got to pull off a double pass. My day was made but I was pretty much finished.

After we regrouped and refreshed a bit it was time to head for Domenigoi and we let Rabbit start. Gambler, and D’Artagnon went after him and Highlander took over for me so I didn’t have to try and close on the A group. Still we all got to Domenigoni about the same time and when the light changed headed east towards Searl and the Marina climb. The lead group took off too fast and I found myself in the back trying to pull the B group up to some stragglers. Soon there were five of us moving together to Warren where I took over and pulled us to Searl so they could rest for Seven Dollar hill. Didn’t matter because I most of the Bs didn’t climb the hill. I was the last one up and the last one down but I did see some of our Cast a Shadow friends looking over the lake on the last corner before the top.

As I got to the bottom of the hill most of the B group had left and Jennifer and part of the A group waited for me. I rode with Jennifer back to State Street and explained that I wasn’t worried because whoever went up to Ramona bowl would wait at the top till I got there. I waited for Rabbit at the turn to Ramona to be sure he would see where we went and followed Jennifer and Centaur the parking lot at the top where only Centaur was waiting. No problem however because everyone else in the A group had ridden back to use the restroom and came back out before we dropped off of the hill and back to Crest where Jennifer and Rabbit left us. I worked my way over to Thornton between six other riders heading towards Lake.

D’Artagnon left us at Stetson and Gambler took one of the young Turks back to Florida and they headed for their respective homes. Centaur, Rocky and I rode together to Fairview and then on Florida heading to the fire station. Before we got there Highlander and the B team passed us going the other way. We turned around in the parking lot and took turns pulling all the way back to Carl’s. There were only half as many of us by the time we got to Carl’s but we had a good time anyway. By the time we started home Dura Max and T-3 headed back towards Acacia and we headed up to Lincoln and west.

Getting around Park and onto Devonshire presented no problems and traffic was very light. It didn’t take long before we were past Yale and getting close to San Jacinto where we managed to catch the light green and moved onto Santa Fe. I don’t know why there is always some water at Santa Fe but there is. We turned south to Latham and headed west again. As we got close to State Street I let everyone know I would be heading for home on Palm and I knew Digger would be heading north on the same road.

When I turned south Rocky went with me and we rode together to the block before Wilshire and he turned for home wishing me a happy Thanksgiving. I slowly made my way home feeling every weight workout I had done the day before and my legs were starting to complain about the three climbs for today. I know that sooner or later working on my core will help my cycling. But today all I can say is it can also make it hard to lift my arms.