It was time for a little climbing today and I for one was looking forwards to it. Quicksilver and Huntress both had been pushing for chance to test their climbing legs and we needed a ride east anyway. It also was one of the last warm days the weather wizards said we would have this week. So I dressed a bit lighter than Monday and headed for Burger King to have coffee with Digger. Once I got to the parking I noticed that both Digger and Dragon Slayer were already there and Highlander was right behind them. Bloodhound, Quicksilver and Daredevil arrived next followed by Bulldozer, Newsboy, Rob and MacGyver. It turned out that Huntress wasn’t able to make it today so the eleven of us headed down Gilmore to Acacia before turning south again and heading towards the railroad tracks.

Everyone was moving along easily and Bloodhound pulled away a bit on our way towards the Tracks. He often sets a pretty quick warm up pace but then he doesn’t have to warm up legs that are 50, 60 or 70 years old. Still he crossed the tracks and turned west so we could follow him to Johnston and then Sanderson to head for the airport road.

We had to stop after turning onto Johnston because Dragon Slayer had to stop and clean glass off of his tires after running into a big patch of it on the corner. Once back on our way we ran into a lot of traffic heading north towards Wentworth and caught the light there. We managed to all make a left turn without being run over by any cars and rode west to the airport road and past Hanger 1 to get back to Stetson.

Once again Bloodhound took the lead and pulled us out onto Stetson and towards Warren. We were all in one group till we rolled through the intersection at Warren and several of the big dogs moved by us. Bulldozer, Daredevil, Newsboy and Bloodhound were in the lead group with Dragon Slayer and Quicksilver not far behind. I had a much smaller group behind me and tried to bring them up to Dragon Slayer and Quicksilver only to lose then on California and tag up with Quicksilver before they rounded the corner onto Stowe. Dragon slayer and I broke away and tried to close, unsuccessfully, on the fleeing group of big dogs as moved west and then stopped at Winchester Market for a regroup.

We had to modify the route slightly as we headed south and had to turn onto Simpron to head east because of construction on Domenigoni. We got into a pretty nice pace line heading east with only a few hiccups before we got back to Warren and regrouped at Warren and Domenigoni. We had a quick discussion on pace lines before heading east again towards Searl and the Marina. We reformed the pace line and soon were split into rotating and single line. The faster being the rotating pace line. However we ran into a bad patch of wood in the bike lane and by the time we reformed and were on our way again the single line had caught the lead group and everyone joined the rotating line. Everyone took their turn in the line including Digger, maybe the new bike had something to do with it but he put in a great effort today. The effort did seem to take something out of some of the riders, maybe even caused them to burn more matches than they had intended before hitting Seven Dollar Hill. Most of us made it up the hill including Digger.

I will admit it felt like one of my better climbs. I started out waiting for Quicksilver but she decided to take a short break before hitting the hill and I worked hard to close on Newsboy and Dragon Slayer. I ended up making the top between the two of them and joined Daredevil, Bloodhound and Bulldozer waiting for the rest of the group. Once we were all at the top we dropped back down the hill to regroup on Searl before heading back out to Domenigoni.

Rob decided to head for home as we headed for State Street. It took two cycles before we all made it through the light at State and then Bloodhound and MacGyver started us north towards Chambers. Quicksilver pulled out front for a bit till Daredevil pulled up next to her and I split the two riders to stay with him till we started up the rise. He picked up the pace and I tried to stay with him only to have Newsboy sprint by and cause Daredevil to kick it up and leave me. We then turned east on Chambers and worked our way to Santa Fe and Stetson. I told Quicksilver to save her legs for the Ramona Bowl but she was right with the A group as they turned on Girard to attack the Hill. Bloodhound hit it first followed by MacGyver and for a few minutes by Quicksilver. I got by her and tried to pace MacGyver only to be run down by Bulldozer and following him around the top and down the backside to Crest Street for another regroup. We then headed east some more t try to get to Lake and join Highlander on Fairview.

We finally did make it to Lake and move to Stetson where Quicksilver pulled us as far and the fenced yards with the big, fast, German Shepherds where I took over and finally Dragon slayer and then Daredevil finished it off till we got to Fairview and headed north. We were quickly back up to Florida and heading east towards Cranston. Bloodhound pulled us all the way to the trees and then we had a hard rush up the grade to the parking lot where Highlander was waiting and we took a short break, told stories and got ready to head back west towards Carl’s.

Quicksilver and I didn’t have time to stop and have coffee so we didn’t push it too hard on our way back to Fairview and then waved at the rest of the group as we rounded the corner onto New Chicago with Highlander and headed for Lincoln and west to Park. We kept the pace steady as we worked our way to Devonshire and then to the light at San Jacinto. I stayed with them till we got to Palm and headed for home and a hot shower. I may get rained out the rest of the week but today was a great ride with great friends.