By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) I got a call on the weekend saying some of our riders will be returning from whatever hiatus they happened to be on. They also requested a easier ride to start the week and let them get back into the swing of things after being gone. I put together one of our stock easy rides and posted it not knowing just how many people would be there. I got up to a beautiful morning and put on my kit, had breakfast and headed for Burger King for coffee. I took a little turn around the block because I got to Burger King early and ended up following Digger back to the parking lot. We got coffee and waited for everyone to arrive. The first one was Rocket followed by Dragon Slayer, Bloodhound, Ranger, Scott, Highlander and Surgeon. Last but not least Robert arrived and we were ready to head out onto Gilmore and south to Acacia.

As often happened Bloodhound left off right where he did Friday and pulled ahead of the group without a warm up. This time we decided not to chase him and take our time getting to Kirby and turning south towards the railroad tracks. Ranger did move up to ride with Bloodhound and soon we were all headed for Johnston and the light at Sanderson.

As we came off of the light on Sanderson and headed for Stetson Dragon Slayer wanted to try and attack the Mustang to Domenigoni Segment. We didn’t get the KOM but may have moved up on the top ten of Strava. Still we backed down to collect the group once we made the turn onto Domenigoni. Bloodhound continued on till a few of us joined him and I stayed with the lead group till we got to Warren. Bloodhound was pulling everyone with him till I noticed Digger falling back to pick up. I had already had a chance to play so I went back to ride sweep and let Digger go on. We caught Digger and Rocket at Winchester and I ended up pulling from there to the Saddle for a regroup.

Bloodhound was running pretty fast all day on his new Cannondale CAAD 10 and to tell the truth Highlander and Surgeon were right in the middle of the pack even after their riding sabbatical. Robert had been off of his bike even longer than the others and still had plenty of fine tuning to do to get his set up correct.

Once everyone was ready we dropped off of the Saddle and headed towards Lindenburger. We rolled by that light and headed for Menifee and then Antelope. From there it was over the Freeway and past Haun and then Bradley. It had been decided that we would not stop at Carl’s. We continued on past Murrieta and to the light on Berea with a turn again on Normandy and then to the park on LaLadera.

The park gave us a chance to have a quick snack, make and last minute adjustments on their bikes and tell each other stories before we had to get back on the road and head north and east towards McCall.

We were still in a pretty tight group as we got to Honeyrun and not that far apart when we turned north once again on Valley Boulevard. But we did string out as we got close to Cherry Hill and made the turn onto McCall and headed east. Most of us got caught at the light on Murrieta and headed for Hospital Hill. Once again Bloodhound took the lead rolling by the Valero Station and I had to get a tow from Dragon Slayer to catch up to his back wheel. I was absolutely determined to hold onto Bloodhound’s wheel all the way to the top and then down the back side towards Menifee. Dragon Slayer and Ranger past me just before the light and headed for Heritage so I made the hard right turn and headed to Simpson betting on getting a green light at Lindenburger if the lead group caught the red. And to my god fortune it works just as planned and I rolled through the green while everyone else was stopped on Simpson. I knew they would give chase as a group but I also knew I had a small truck between me and them in the construction zone and had a good chance of making it to Leon without being caught. I did make it to Leon in time to see Cal-Fire making a practice water pick up and waiting for the rest of the group.

I sat there and collected Rocket, Ranger, Digger, Scott and Dragon Slayer. Bloodhound continued on for home while we waited for Highlander, Surgeon and Robert. First Surgeon decided to go straight on Simpson and not long after Highlander and Robert followed him. That meant that my group would have to hit it pretty hard to beat them out to Winchester and then up to Stowe. In truth we didn’t beat Surgeon, he was waiting for us on Winchester and 9th, so then we then simply moved onto Winchester Market for our coffee stop.

Once again it was time for visiting and storytelling as we had refreshments and waited to go home. Rocket and Digger left first before getting too stiff from the sudden cool down of not riding.

When the rest of us decided to head for home we headed east on Stowe and then North on California and spread out quite a bit. Robert and I pulled up the rear and chatted away rather than push for home as Highlander and his group seemed to be doing. We got back to the cars and talked with everyone for a few minutes before heading home ourselves. It seemed more like an extension of fast Friday rather than easy Monday but it was a satisfying ride none the less.