By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Wednesdays have turned into our big ride day and I for one am excited about it. We either do some climbing or some sprinting or some distance and today I had some of all of that planned for a new ride we were going to try. I got up early and had breakfast so it would have plenty of time to digest and got dressed for the ride. I left the house a bit early so I could meander over to the parking lot to have coffee with Digger even though I already had one at home. Turns out neither of us got coffee and both of us already had some before we got there. There was a pretty good turnout for the ride today with Bulldozer, Daredevil, and Bloodhound followed by, Highlander, Huffnpuff, Daniel and Scott. Lastly we had Surgeon and Huntress. There were some that I expected that were missing and I did expect to see Isaac on the way out and Dragon Slayer would be waiting on Hansen. When 9am rolled around the whole group pulled out onto Latham and headed for Lyon. Once we turned north the pace quickly started to pick up and Bloodhound started to move to the front.

To my surprise Daniel dropped onto Bloodhound’s back wheel and they quickly made a small gap on the rest of the group. For reasons I can only attribute to a dream state I decided to try and close the gap on Bloodhound and Daniel and noticed that neither Bulldozer nor Daredevil were in any hurry to move north and Highlander mentioned that I was pushing the group a bit pretty early in the ride. Finally Daredevil got in front of me and pulled us up to Bloodhound right at Ramona Boulevard.

We started west and soon Bulldozer and Daredevil took over and really moved us towards Sanderson. at small People started dropping off of the back of that small group but I decided to hang on for all I was worth. Bloodhound and I rounded the corner onto Sanderson as soon as Daredevil slowed down for the turn and we more or less had a small regroup at the light on the Expressway. As we rounded the corner we noticed Daniel had a flat and Scott and Huffnpuff stayed to help him change the tube. They told us to go one and we started the run west towards Nuevo. I started the pull and got us to Warren and most of the way to Bridge and Bloodhound took the lead back. As soon as he gave up the lead Highlander and Surgeon fell back with him and Bulldozer ramped it up and we slowly got to 28 mph before making it to the light at Hansen where Dragon Slayer was waiting for us.

It was at this point things were about to get interesting, at least for me. I assigned Dragon Slayer to go with the Big dogs because he knew the route and I offered to stay and wait for the rest of the B group. Digger said he would wait for the Bs and some of the Bs started west towards the rollers in front of Lake Perris to see if they could make it to Evans before the A group ran them down. When Bulldozer, Daredevil and Bloodhound left to pull out and follow Highlander, Huntress and Surgeon Dragon Slayer and I went with them. Bulldozer pulled us west towards Bernasconi and soon we were closing on the fleeing threesome. To my amazement I stayed with the big dogs and soon we were headed for the second roller. Here is where a warning to others has to be mentioned. I was feeling so good my mind decided to write a check my legs were not going to be able to cash. As we started up the second hill I decided to go around Bulldozer and pull over the hill. At first I did pretty well and inside I was ready to laugh at the idea that I had 66 year old legs. But then reality set in and I knew full well my matches were quickly running out and I had better give up the lead soon or suffer for it later. I almost got dropped by the whole big dog group and only just barely caught Dragon Slayer’s back wheel as we started down the back side past Rider. When we turned the corner onto Evans going north and I stopped to wait for the B group. first Huntress Surgeon and Highlander showed up and I sent them on while I waited for the rest of the group. Lastly Scott, Phil, Daniel and Digger got to Evans and we headed to the Mickey Ds to try and regroup with Surgeon, Huntress and Highlander. They couldn’t wait and we ended up chasing in their direction as we worked our way on Iris to Alessandro and head for Gilman.

As we cleared the blocking effect of the lake we hit a head wind that sat us back on Alessandro. I pulled all the way to Gilman and the four of us did regroup before heading east towards Bridge. That turned into one long run into the wind and we had to stop for another regroup at Bridge. Scott and I took turns pulling back to Sanderson and headed south towards home. I had enough steam left to pull all the way back to Devonshire and then back to Burger King where we met Highlander before heading home for a well deserved rest and shower.