11/23/2012 By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) This week was beginning to look like one of the best weeks we have had for cycling all year. The weather has been great and the attendance has been strong. With that in mind I had no problem getting myself out of bed and into my kit first thing this morning. I had my breakfast, watched some news and headed for the parking lot to see how many were giving up a chance to shop on black Friday just to ride a few little hills with us. It turned out quite a few were interested and showed up at 9am.

I was a bit surprised to see Blood Hound and even more surprised to see Surgeon. Then two riders we met in Nuevo Monday showed up, George and Blain. Dura Max, Digger and I watched them pull up just before Highlander and Rocky. We picked up T-3 on the way to Acacia. Nine of us made it to Kirby and headed towards Cypress to start the ride west. We turned on Cypress and headed for Johnston when we caught the light at Sanderson. We lost two riders at the light but waited to regroup at Wally World before heading for Domenigoni and the long run to the Saddle.

We started west on Domenigoni and after just a few minutes Blood Hound started us with a long lead out even over the dry wash. I pulled for a while and then gave up the lead to Surgeon. We took turns all the way to Winchester and then to Leon where we jammed up a bit and Blood Hound took over again and pulled half of us to the top of the saddle to regroup.

Our next stop would be Carl’s out on Newport and Murrieta so we dropped down the backside of the saddle to give it try. It wasn’t long before we were rolling past Menifee and Bloodhound was moving away with Surgeon and George in tow. Highlander and Rocky were between the lead three and Dura Max, T-3, Blain and I were following to Antelope. We caught up to Highlander and Rocky at Haun then chased the last three all the way to Carl’s for a nature break.

While we stood around and talked at Carl’s a change of plans happened and Blain took off to get home in time for work. Dura Max, Highlander, T-3 and Surgeon decided not to go all the way to Goetz but rather take La Ladera over to McCall. That left Blood Hound, George, Rocky, Digger and I to head over the three climbs that make up Goetz. We figured that once we split up it would be the last time we saw the other group till Monday. It didn’t take long for us to make it to Goetz and start the climb.

I was impressed with how easy the Goetz climb felt today. I expected that my sore arms would make the climb a pain but it wasn’t and we all made it to the top and down the back side to Ethanic to head back east. We were going to have to split again once we got back to Murrieta because George would have to head for home so it was down to four after the split.

We moved south on Murrieta and ended up taking the Short Cut that Full Throttle had shown us that headed to the frontage road after passing the little area with the Emus. We got to the frontage road and headed over to McCall and east again to Hospital Hill. I ended up chasing Rocky to the top of the hill but we were all that spread out anyway so we only paused before dropping down the back side and heading to Heritage and working our way towards Lindenburger and Simpson.

We lined up for a run east on Simpson and I gave to lead to Digger by Briggs. He pulled us all the way to Leon at just about 19 or 20 mph before Rocky pulled around and picked it up to 21 or 22. I settled in on Blood Hound’s rear wheel and waited to see if a sprint was going to take place. Rocky led us out of the first stand of Eucalyptus and into the second one at about 22 Mph and then started to pick up the pace. Blood Hound made his move and I went with him. Just before we ran out of room before Winchester I managed to pull around Blood Hound and get to the turning lane first. We got to Chris’s just as Highlander and his group was leaving and heading home. We had coffee and an energy bar before heading home ourselves. We made short work of Winchester and then Stowe. The wind was with us as long as we were going east so it was easy to kick it up a bit all the way to California and again when we got to Stetson. We crossed Warren and split from Digger at the Airport. Blood Hound, Rocky and I rode to sandeson and then down to Johnston heading for home.

Rocky would be leaving us at Lyon and I would drop off at San Francisco while Blood Hound would ride all the way to Yale before he turned off. I felt pretty good as I pulled up to my front door and stopped the Garmin. As it has been said many times, it is days like this that are the reason we live in Southern California and not where it snows.