By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Much like a parody of Forest Gump you could say Cycling is like a box of chocolates you never know what you are going to get. Today was a bit of proof of that contention. As I got ready to leave the house this morning I received a text message from Dragon Slayer sawing he was out on Ramona with a flat. He had plenty of time to fix it and get to Burger King so I didn’t worry. I headed to Burger King myself and somehow managed to get there first. I was having coffee when Digger and Dura Max arrived. Bloodhound, Highlander and Surgeon got there about the same time and shortly after that Dragon Slayer pulled up. Quicksilver texted me that she wasn’t feeling well and Huntress is headed to Washington to climb Mount Rainier and I have no idea what happened to Hawk so we were without female riders today. MacGyver did join us and that seemed to be it till Barracuda and Shadow got there. By 8am we were headed out onto Gilmore and headed for Florida. I noticed Gambler and Bulldozer sitting across the street waiting for us to make the light. Once the light turned green we headed for Acacia to get this ride started.

What I didn’t see was that Dragon Slayer got another flat before he got out to Florida. It seems as if MacGyver stopped with him and both Gambler and Bulldozer returned to pull them up to the group once the tire was fixed. As we made our way to Kirby and then south towards Cypress I was unaware that we had lost four riders. Digger pulled up next to me and let me know to pull over and wait. Just as I was about to text the stragglers Gambler texted me to go on and they would catch us on the road. We made our way to Sanderson and south again looking forward to the run west on Domenigoni.

The ride west on Domenigoni started out great and I pulled all the way to Warren where Bloodhound took over and started to pick up the pace. I warned him that the B group was not going to be able to hold 25 or 26 all the way to the saddle and soon they started to drop off as I predicted. Bloodhound took off on his own and I regrouped everyone else and headed for Winchester. We were cruising along pretty well till we got close to Leon where we came upon Bloodhound with two flat tires. Some of us stopped to assist and as we were working on the wheels the missing A group came flying by and headed for the saddle. By the time we were back on our way the A group had gone on to Menifee and only Barracuda and Shadow were waiting for us. Once we were all back together we headed for Menifee together and made the turn south looking for the A group.

As we got close to Holland I locked onto Bloodhound’s back wheel as was planning on trying to stay with him to the top. As we started the climb proper I stood on it and pulled around him heading for the top. As I steadied my spin I sat down and it felt like I had shifted into 52x11. I stood up again and didn’t get 15 feet before I had to stop. It Turned out I didn’t have my read skewer down tight on the rear wheel and it had kicked to the side and was sitting on my brake pad. The harder I pushed the harder it was to pedal. I fixed that and continued on to the top. I led a few riders to Scott where we rejoined Barracuda, Shadow and Bloodhound. We didn’t get ten yards before Shadow informed us the Bloodhound had another flat. By now the group was splintered into two or three unfixable parts. Not much to report on as we repaired the third flat for Bloodhound anymore than on the two flats for Dragon Slayer. Our group made our way to Haun and then to Newport to jog over to Bradley and then to McCall and Hospital Hill. I lightly spun up the hill and regrouped at the top with Bloodhound, Barracuda, Shadow, and Highlander. We stayed together till we got to Simpson and headed for Winchester where Barracuda and Shadow left us and Highlander and I made our way to Winchester Market to regroup with Bloodhound, Dura Max and Digger. We took our time to rehydrate and then headed east on Stowe to start our way home.

We stayed together down Stowe and then Bloodhound took off as we got to California and extended his lead on Stetson. I took everyone else to Warren and we split once more at the airport with Digger and Highlander splitting off while Dura Max and I made our way to Sanderson then up to Johnston and back east past palm where I turned for home and Dura Max continued on to the east end of town. It turned out to be a great day for a ride, if you don’t count the number of flats.