By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) I have learned a few things since riding with this group. One of those things is how to read code. What do I mean by code? I mean when you post one thing and everyone does something else. And that something else is almost always the same thing. I used to post flat Fridays. That turned into code for, fast Friday. Then I tried to make the Friday rides a cruise because we had several people racing on Saturday. But posting a ride I might call easy Friday, always ended up being, Fast Friday. So a few days ago a rider asked me to move the flat and shorter days to Monday. The summer was coming and we had some riders returning to the group so I felt the request was reasonable. I headed to Burger King today thinking I had posted a easy flay ride for the group and I intended to try and keep track of the B group and let the A group go without me. As I had my coffee 14 rides showed up for the ride including a new rider, Mark, just visiting the area. At ( am we headed for Latham and Lyon.

As I moved east towards Lyon Surgeon and Bloodhound were close behind and my friend Rocket was just behind them. As we turned south on Lyon everything seemed to be going according to plan and we cruised easily at about 16 down to Florida. We had t wait for a moment till the light changed to green and we headed for Acacia. It didn’t change much as we moved on to Johnston and then down to Stetson. Only four of us made it through the light on Stetson and we had to wait for the rest of the group after we turned on Thornton. Once they got there I led us towards State and we were still holding together as a group.

I got us started on State and stayed out front till we rolled by Chambers where Daredevil took over and several of the young Turks went with him. Soon Rocket went by me and I fell in on his wheel and stayed with them till we rounded the corner onto Domenigoni. We were almost to Searl when I realized we had dropped several riders so I went back to get them. Daredevil had the rest of the group on his wheel and both Digger and Jackal past me as I tried to collect Mark and Tax Man to bring them up to Digger and Jackal. We caught them at Sanderson and I pulled the five of them to Warren and over the Wash. Daredevil had Highlander, Bloodhound, Newsboy, Surgeon, Mantis, Pony Express, and Rocket and they were pulling away from us by at least 3 Mph and fading into the distance. There was no way we were going to catch the lead group and we did see Rocket heading back before we got to Winchester. As we pulled away from the light I only had Jackal, Digger and Tax Man with me and everyone else had left us to regroup at the saddle.

I explained to Bloodhound where we were going and planned for our next regroup before we dropped off the back side of the Saddle and made our way to Lindenburger. I kept Tax Man, Jackal and digger with me and we finally caught the lead group at Simpson before heading through the housing tract and turning on McCall to head for Menifee and north towards the AM/PM. As we got to the first light on Menifee Mantis and Newsboy kicked it up and past Bloodhound and Daredevil. That wasn’t going to work however because there just isn’t enough distance to the AM/PM to even begin to tire either Bloodhound or Daredevil out. They got to AM/PM a few minutes before my group and we took a short break.

I was telling Jackal that once we were back on the road he needed to watch the group after we made the rise just past Mapes. Normally the pace picks up quite a bit and if there was going to be a break that was where it would be. As we closed in on Mapes I pulled in front of Bloodhound so he would have fresh legs if the attack came and led us over the rise and slowly picked up speed after the rise. No one attacked at 24 nor did they try t come around at 25 so I figured they were happy with the pace. I cranked it to 26 and still no one came out to pass. At 27 we were closing on the first stop sign and I pulled out to let someone else take the lead and that is where Newsboy and Jackal went after Bloodhound. However they had Daredevil tracking them like a shark and when they made the jump he went by them like they were rolling backwards. He would have finished it that way except a car tried to share his space at Central and he decided not to argue with 3600 pounds of steel and plastic. As I turned onto Nuevo I stopped to collect the stragglers and then proceeded east to Lakeview and caught Highlander, Jackal, Pony Express Bloodhound and Mantis waiting for us. Once we were all collected Bloodhound started us north towards Ramona and Daredevil finished by taking us to Hansen for a regroup. We had to wait for Huffnpuff to fix a flat before we were ready to make the run east on Ramona.

I got us started and slowly worked us up to 20 or 21 before Daredevil took over. A good portion of the group fell off and shortly after that we kicked it up a bit and made a hard run for Warren. Soon it was just Daredevil, Bloodhound, Jackal, Newsboy, Mantis, Surgeon and me. I took my turn at the front and after falling back had to hold on to a very difficult pace line. It was one of those slinky lined where I kept gaining and slowing and gaining all the way to Warren. At one point Highlander back and I picked him up and then Surgeon fell back and I picked him up. Newsboy and I waited at Sanderson for Digger, Huffnpuff and Tax Man and then headed onto Ramona heading towards Lyon as Huffnpuff headed up Lambs Canyon. Mantis came back and picked up Newsboy at Lyon and I pulled Tax Man all the way back to Burger King to meet up with a few of the other riders before heading for home myself. What had I learned about flat Monday cruise rides? They are pretty much like the old flat Fridays that were just an excuse for Fast Fridays. So no I guess even an easy Monday can turn into , “Just another Manic Monday,” as the Bangles used to say.