By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Mondays I tend to feel more rested than any other day of the week. More than likely it has something to do will taking two days off and getting a bit more rest. Whatever the reason I was ready for a good ride today and we put together a longer Juniper Flats to celebrate. I got up and got ready to head to Burger King for coffee and to see who would show up for the ride. I had coffee and waited till Dura Max arrived and we watched as several others pulled up but there was no Digger. He arrived as one of the last riders even after Metric Man who came down from Beaumont. We had a good A group with Gambler, Daredevil, Bulldozer, Metric Man, Bloodhound and MacGyver. Surgeon, Highlander, Quicksilver, Digger and I made a good B group with Red Rabbit tossed in for good measure. Dura Max left to go ride with T-3 and the rest of us made it down Gilmore and then over to Kirby to head south.

We worked our way up to Cypress and headed through the houses to Johnston and then out onto Sanderson where we went north to Wentworth and turned towards the Airport. I was moving along quite easily and for once in a long time was looking forward to the Juniper Flats climb. Soon we were on the airport road itself and heading for Stetson with Bloodhound in the lead followed by Surgeon.

As Bloodhound got out onto Stetson and started to pick up the pace Surgeon started to let him go but Highlander quickly zipped around and got on Bloodhounds back wheel. The rest of us decided to let them go feeling we would catch them at Warren. And catch them at Warren we did but as soon as we crossed the street they started to pull away again. I was thinking of closing the gap to then when Bulldozer came flying by with Daredevil on his back wheel followed by MacGyver. I jumped between MacGyver and Daredevil and soon we had caught the two fleeing riders and were pulling away towards California. Just before California I checked my heart rate and noticed I was close to zone 4 so I backed out and watched the group go. They did fragment at Stowe and I managed to recover enough to ride to Winchester with MacGyver. We stopped at Winchester only to discover the big dogs had left. Then when the rest of the B group got to Winchesterwe learned Metric Man had gone back with a broken spoke.

The group was now down to MacGyver, Surgeon, Quicksilver, Highlander, Digger and me. But we did pick up Coyote after we made our way down Winchester to the Dump road. MacGyver and I pulled the group all the way to Leon and then to Briggs. It didn’t take long to get though the houses and then out to Florida. The light at Florida wasn’t about to change for us so we sat there for a long time before making our way to Mapes and then over to Menifee. I managed to pull all the way to Central and then got to Nuevo first. I had to back down again when we got about halfway up Nuevo road after which we stopped to regroup.

Surgeon rode down to Contour when we were regrouping and we rode without him to Contour ourselves where we picked him up before starting up Juniper flats. We past the little school and cruised down the little slope to make the big right turn heading up the hill.

As we started the climb a group of 4 pulled away led by MacGyver with Surgeon, Quicksilver and me following. Quicksilver missed a shift, or pretended to do so, and I ended up pulling around her and following Surgeon. MacGyver was obviously the strongest rider on the climb and so I settled into a steady climbing pace over the first two steps of the climb. Then without any warning Quicksilver sprinted past me just before the top of the last rise and the downhill before the last climb. However there were only a few yards to the top of that rise and I had a good downhill run at the last long climb so I managed to get back past her and to the top of the hill without getting “chicked”, again. But the look on her face told me that maybe she didn’t miss that shift after all and planned on passing me all along.

We dropped down Juniper flats road and made our way to Florida and headed west to Briggs where we had one last regroup before MacGyver and Surgeon left us. Coyote left us at Leon while our small group made our way back to the dump road and then Winchester before deciding to go back to Stowe and have coffee before heading east back to Hemet.

We made good time on Stowe and I got out onto California first only to be chased down by Quicksilver and finally by Highlander and Digger. We crossed warren and made it back to the airport before going to Sanderson and the ride around Lowes. All that was left was Acacia and Gilmore and we were back at Burger king with smiles on our face. I said good bye to Highlander and Quicksilver before riding home for lunch and a shower. I still felt good even when I had to take the dog for a walk.