1/14/2013 By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Looking at the projected weather reports on Sunday things didn’t look good for Monday morning. They were predicting freezing temperatures and high winds so it looked like a good time for a short ride that stayed closer to the center of town and Cactus Valley got the call. I had to get my mid weight base layers on because my heavy weight ones were in the laundry. I looked outside and there was no wind so I dressed as warmly as I could and headed out to meet the group. The first thing I needed when I got there was hot coffee. We stood in front of the windows of Burger King, the warmest spot in Hemet I believe, and talked till all the people that were going to attempt the ride in the cold arrived. Digger, Dura Max, Rocky, Highlander, Bloodhound, T-3 and I were ready to go by 9am. A quick ride down Gilmore with a turn on Acacia and then on Kirby and we were on our way.

I felt a bit sluggish as we got to Cypress but I managed to lead the group through the housing tract all the way to Sanderson and Johnston. I just wasn’t sure I could pull all the way up Sanderson to Domenigoni but I managed to do just that all the way past Mustang and the high school to the stop light. I managed to start us off on the turn towards State Street before turning the lead over to Highlander. As I fell to the back of the pack I could see the cold air was attacking Dura Max more than the rest of us.

Highlander and Bloodhound were waiting for us at Searl and Rocky finally offered to pull for me about half way to State. But as soon as he did I noticed T-3 was pulling Dura Max so I fell back to help. Rocky pulled Digger, Highlander and Bloodhound towards Diamond Valley golf course. Once I started pulling Dura Max T-3 took off in chase of Digger. When Dura Max and I rounded the corner onto Cactus Valley road T-3 was about 150 yards behind Digger and Bloodhound was already over the hill on the other side of Sage. T-3 caught Digger right after the top of the hill. Rocky and Highlander had stopped to help a motorist with a flat tire and then had to chase Dura Max and me all the way to the end of Cactus Valley Road.

We didn’t stay at the end of the road all that long before we headed back towards State. As we started out T-3 took the lead and soon I was giving chase to Bloodhound and Highlander. Bloodhound picked up the pace but soon was spinning out as I pulled up on his far right side but one look back and I could see Highlander was going to be my shadow. As we past the little church on the left I clicked my shifter into 50x11 and dropped the hammer. Highlander for some reason got caught off guard and let me go and soon I had a 20 foot gap on both him and Bloodhound. I was breathing well and my legs seemed up to it so I stayed on it till I got to the first horse ranch. I had 200 yards on Highlander by then and noticed Bloodhound coming around and giving chase. I dropped a gear to same my legs and kept up a steady 21 or 22 as we got close to the turn onto State. Now Bloodhound was coming hard but I had saved enough to make a hard run to the stop sign on Newport. I sat up and let them catch me at McSweeney and we rode together around the housing tract to the corner back on State. Once we regrouped we headed north on State towards Domenigoni.

Bloodhound took the lead out on the State Street run once we crossed Domenigoni and I made sure to keep Highlander in front of me because we were fighting a head wind. I didn’t attack till we started up the rise but Highlander tried to attack back and he got a wheel on me before I could take it back and make it to the sign first. Now all we had to do was make it to Stetson and head east to Fairview. Highlander took the lead and went straight down Stetson all the way to Fairview but Bloodhound got there first and turned left rather than right so he didn’t regroup with us at Wilson Mesa. The last sprint of the day was about to happen. We started north on Fairview with Highlander and T-3 in front followed by Rocky and me. Before we got 200 yards past Bautista Digger came flying by causing Highlander to jump on his back wheel. Rocky was going to jump out but I warned him about being the lead rider at Stetson and we waited to start the sprint closer to the yellow sign just before the bridge. Digger was fading and I got the jump on Highlander but Rocky almost caught me until I crossed the bridge and pulled away. We rode the rest of the way to Carl’s together and stopped to warm up.

We finally got back on the bikes and started for the west side on Lincoln. As we got to Park Dura Max left us. Digger and I had to chase down Rocky and Highlander but finally they pulled over before San Jacinto and then we rode together to Santa Fe before dropping down to Latham and heading for State again. Rocky took over and pulled us to Palm we split again with Digger going north, Rocky and I went south and Highlander continued west. I finally left Rocky and continued on Palm to my house. It was only 33 miles but I was cold and tired and felt like I had been on a much longer ride. But I was happy we did have any problems with ice.