By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) I knew it would be a short week for riding so I wanted a good ride for Monday. Oh sure I was planning a ride for Wednesday but I was informed that Wednesday was Christmas and we had people coming over. SO I checked with the weather wizards and got a pretty good report on the weather being clear, reasonably warm with light winds. Trouble is weather wizards are a lot like politicians, they hardly ever tell the truth. Today that would prove to be an understatement. By the time I got to Burger King Digger and Dragon Slayer were already waiting and having coffee. Bloodhound, Highlander, and RCMP arrived just a little later. The last one there was MacGyver and we were ready to head out onto Latham and north on Lyon.

We moved easily past Devonshire and all the way to Fruitvale and across Esplanade heading to Cottonwood in a rather smooth pace line. As happens in many of our rides Bloodhound took over and pulled us around the corner on Ramona Boulevard and headed us west towards Sanderson. So far the whole group was together and that is how it stayed as we pulled out onto the expressway. Bloodhound took us almost to Warren where I took over and took us to Bridge. Dragon Slayer took over at Bridge and we realized that somehow we had dropped Digger. MacGyver had dropped back to sweep and was dragging digger back to the group so we stopped to wait. By this point a light wind had started but nothing serious. Digger and MacGyver rolled by and we decided to give them a head start before giving chase. We didn’t catch them till we got to the light on Hansen and turned to stop at the Valero Station.

Once we were ready to hit the road again the wind started to pick up a bit. I found myself in the second slot right behind Bloodhound and followed by Highlander and the rest. Bloodhound was pushing the pace a bit as we crossed the bridge and started the little climb. I stayed with Bloodhound till we got to about 100 yards from Bernasconi and up the last grade. RCMP took off after Bloodhound. I had to back down and throw it into a lower gear I could spin and was passed before the gate by Macgyver. We waited for Dragon Slayer, Highlander and Digger to catch up as we entered the bike path to start around the lake. Most of us had agreed to take it easy going over to the Marina but Bloodhound left us as we hit the little hill and dropped down the other side just as the rest of us were cresting. Problem was there was a slow moving cyclist on an old cruiser around the first corner and Bloodhound misjudge his speed and clearance and ran into the Cruiser on the right side, they both went down with the Cruiser landing on top of Bloodhound. Dragon Slayer performed first aid as a Forest service truck stopped to see if they could help. We ended up riding to the Marina anyway with Bloodhound leading the way, bloody had and all.

Bloodhound decided t finish the ride so after a short break we got back on the bikes and headed for the North gate to leave the park. We climbed the hill to the summit and dropped down the rather steep hill and regrouped on the corner of Del Lago before heading west and for the very first time getting the wind we weren’t supposed to have to deal with someplace other than in our face.

Once we were rolling I started a hard pull to get to the light that would lead us to Evans and south. For a change it was easy to roll along at 30 without ng the 11 gear. Dragon Slayer shared the pulling duties with me till we made the turn and once again we waited to everyone made the turn and headed south. By the time we turned onto Ramona and headed east the wind was at least 15 knots and was right in out face. We held together pretty well till we got to the motorcycle park and then Digger started to struggle in the wind. It wasn’t that he couldn’t put out the effort it was the fact that with his relaxed setup he is almost like riding a flat bar and takes the wind full on in his face and chest. I pulled him till we got to the regroup on top of the first roller past Rider.

Once we started down the hill and headed back to Barnesconi digger and I soon lost the draft and watched the rest of the riders pull away. I told Digger to just stay on my wheel and we would more than likely regroup at Lakeview. Dragon slayer waited for us at Barnesconi and helped pull us to Lakeview and left us to regroup with RCMP, Bloodhound, Highlander and MacGyver. However we were no able to stay with them when we got back on the Expressway because the wind was brutal. Digger and I stayed together and just picked a gear we could push easily into the wind all the way to Warren were we took a break to give Digger a soft tissue break from his new saddle. I took him to Sanderson and then south to Menlo. I left him at Lyon and headed for home and a hot shower. Yes I had 51 miles in but it felt like 35 of those miles were into the wind. The same effort as a 35 mile climb.