By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) 6/24/13 I thought it was going to be a rather warm day and expected light winds so it seemed like it would be a good day to ride Juniper Flats. Because climbing would be involved I decided to take the Tarmac rather than the Klein and see how much my new low carb diet would effect me. So far the energy level has been pretty close to the same but now that the weight loss has started again I wasn’t sure if that would keep up. I had a low carb breakfast and got dressed before heading to Burger King to start the day. With many of the A team gone on a trip to Yosemite I didn’t expect a big group. I was glad to see six riders as we headed out of the driveway and onto Latham before turning onto Lyon and heading north.

We were rolling along at a good pace as we past Menlo, and even Esplanade making our way towards Ramona. Dragon Slayer was with us so I knew we would have someone to pull us north. Not that Quicksilver, Digger, Highlander or Tax Man needed that much help getting to Ramona Boulevard. We made it to the corner and headed west when I took over and started the pull to Sanderson.

When we got to Ramona expressway we developed a plan for the ride by the Dairy where the two big dogs often come out to chase us. We would stick together as close as we could so we could get by before the dogs spotted us. I will admit that to my surprise the plan worked and we made it all the way to Hansen for a regroup. Once we were all ready we headed south towards Condor with a planned stop at Dragon Slayer’s for a nature break.

Our next move was to get back to Condor and start back east towards Hansen. We let Dragon Slayer lead us through some of his neighborhoods and ended up riding past Les’s house and out onto Condor.

Once we crossed over Hansen Highlander started his run at the hill we know as Juniper Flats. As he gapped some of us at the School Dragon Slayer and Quicksilver started to close on him and I closed on their back wheel. Digger and Tax Man were falling back as I closed the gap and then I heard the fateful words, flat, and attempted to pass the call up. I turned around and returned to see Tax Man changing a flat. It took us about five minutes before we were back on our way and I have no idea how long it took for us to rejoin Dragon Slayer and his group at the top of the hill. This was Quicksilver’s first trip up Juniper flats and her time was only .4 or .5 mph slower than my best time on the same hill.

Once we were ready to drop off of the Hill Highlander and Dragon Slayer took off at a pretty good clip and even at 33 MPH I wasn’t closing on them. It wasn’t till the very last turn till I felt I was close enough to spin up to the two fleeing speedsters. We made one more regroup before heading to Ramona and west to Briggs. We all commented on the new construction at what we all knew were a relatively new High School. But that is what governments do when they are low on funds, they spend more money. Still we moved through the housing tract and back out to Briggs only to split in two as we headed to the Dump road.

Highlander and Tax Man took off and headed for the sprint zone and the first to give chase was Quicksilver. Dragon Slayer decided to go after them and I managed to just catch Quicksilver before she got to Winchester and turned to Chris’s for a break. Once we were ready to head for home Highlander and Dragon Slayer took off for Stowe first leaving the rest of us to get up the road by ourselves. I tried to pull the rest of the group up to tem but there is a fine line between closing and dropping part of your group. I simply couldn’t do both. But they did wait for us on Stowe and we all started east towards California together.

Dragon Slayer and I tried a sprint towards the end of Stowe and rounded the corner onto California first. As we got down to Stetson I couldn’t understand why we seemed to be in such a hurry. Normally we use Stetson as part of our cool down but today we simply strung out the group. Finally I left them at the airport and headed for home. By Sanderson I managed t drop into my small ring and start my spin for Johnston and back to Palm. I got home with most of the lactic acid worked out of my legs and finished off the rest of my water bottle before pulling up to my house with 39 miles on the computer. Yes it felt more like fall then summer but still it was a good ride.