By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) 7/29/13 I got up this morning knowing it would be the last group ride I will have for at least a week and a half. Knowing that I had planned a 60 mile ride around Lake Elsinore that would give the climbers, sprinters and cruisers something to look forward to I was also aware some people might not show up. What surprised me was by 8AM we had twelve riders ready to go and almost half of them were part of our A group. I had a bit larger breakfast to get ready for this ride and I felt pretty good as we pulled out of the parking lot and headed down to Acacia and then over to Kirby and south.

Breakfast was holding up well as far as my energy level went and the whole group moved smartly south on Kirby to Cypress and into the housing tract to work our way to Johnston. We managed to catch the light at Sanderson green and soon were rolling past Stetson and Wally World. Bloodhound as normal was pulling ahead and heading towards Mustang while the rest of the group closed ranks and looked serious about getting to Domenigoni and heading west.

I got the lead at Mustang and got ready to make the turn west when a rider in a TT helmet passed me and go on to the road first. TT helmet or not I was pretty sure the group would run him down. As soon as we were all together I started to pick up the pace and planned on chasing the rider down. I thought better of it and backed off only to have two of the A rider pull in front and pull us all the way to Winchester. We passed the TT helmeted rider along the way and followed the A riders to Leon before setting up for the saddle. Once the grade increased Gambler attacked and soon was pulling away. Because I still felt like breakfast was working for me I attacked Gambler. But alas before I reached the fence my retro rockets burned out and I had to back out of zone 4.

I remembered that before we got to Leon Digger had warned us we were being paced by a recumbent. Looking to the back of the pack I noticed Alan had joined us on his new “bent” and seemed as comfortable as anyone with the pace being set.

Quicksilver was overjoyed at staying in the heart of the draft all the way to the saddle so I was pretty sure she was going to try and stay close to the front all the way to the canyon and beyond. She did pretty good staying close all the way to Carl’s where we were going to regroup and take a nature break. As we waited to be sure we had all the riders we discovered we were missing MacGyver and when Bulldozer called to see where he was all he got was he was on his way. We would discover that wasn’t enough information later on. We decided to start for Railroad canyon only losing Tax Man at LaLadera. As we headed for the light at Goetz I fell back to see if indeed MacGyver was on his way and watch as Quicksilver moved out to get ready to attack the canyon.

I was the last one to reach the first hill into Rail Road canyon and never once say anyone behind me as far as I could see. I finally picked it up a bit and chased down Digger but I was unable to close on Alan even on the last hill. I dropped down to the left turn just past Mickey Ds and waited for Digger. It wasn’t till we stopped on Mission Trail that we learned MacGyver was in front of us. Somehow he passed us at Carl’s and we didn’t see him. It took is a few minutes to ride to where he was waiting and continue around the lake.

I knew the group would hammer it on the back side of the lake and I was equally sure Digger didn’t have a clue as to where we were going to stop for coffee so I fell off the back of the group and pulled him north around the lake. Everything was going fine till we got to Ortega Highway and my breakfast energy wore off. One thing about a low carb diet is when the juice is gone it is really gone. Fortunately it is mostly downhill all the way to Jack in the Box where the rest of the group were waiting.

I needed the break more than most and consumed another energy protein bar and re-hydrated while visiting with the other riders. I felt a little like a cell phone that had been put on a charger as we took our time getting ready to head back out and on the road back towards the canyon. I decided to take advantage of the recovered energy and made the corner and turned south towards the old town of Lake Elsinore. I got away from the group and made it the Graham before Gambler and Bulldozer caught me. As they passed I grabbed a wheel only to hear Bloodhound yelling something about a flat in my ear. I stopped in time to have Highlander pull up to me and then rode back about a mile to see Quicksilver with her first flat. It got fixed and we headed back to the old town and back towards Mickey Ds and the entrance of the canyon.

As we started through the lights heading into the canyon Highlander got a two intersection lead on us and I pulled us as hard as I could to the start of the climb and about 75 yards behind Highlander. I looked down and saw I was in zone 4, a no-no according to my coach while on the diet, and told Quicksilver to pull around and give chase herself. I down shifted and watched everyone but Digger and Hornet pull away. It took me till the top of the first grade to get back into zone 3 and stay there to the top of the light on the second grade. We regrouped with the remainder of the group just before the downhill leading to Goetz. We dropped down and headed for Murrieta.

We stopped so I could have a meal replacement at Murrieta and then moved on to Bradley and then Haun where we took the lane trying to avoid what happened to Bloodhound when he got hit by a truck mirror when the truck past too close trying to squeeze over to get on the freeway. We made it over the freeway and then Antelope and set our sights towards the Saddle.

As we got close to the saddle Quicksilver was in the lead and Greg pulled around to help pull up the hill. I jumped around to join him and found myself just rolling on by and attacking the hill. The legs and lungs felt good and I pushed towards the top but I watched my Heart Rate climb like a temperature gage on a car with a bar radiator and had to back off before cresting but still stopped to wait to regroup as Highlander had suggested. I then dropped off of the front side of the saddle and pulled us to Leon before Hornet took over and pulled us to Winchester. We then took turns pulling all the way back to Warren where Greg and I took over and got us to Sanderson. I stopped to wait for Quicksilver and Digger as they got caught at the Light on Sanderson and rode back north with them till I broke away on Johnston and headed for home. I got there just as it was getting hot and looked down at 61.9 miles on my computer. Not bad for my last ride before my vacation. I look forward to seeing everyone in a week and a half.