By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Sometimes it is just good to realize we live in an area that is good for cycling. It is also seems to be a good place to make friends that like to cycle. Things have been a bit slow the last few weeks because of the weather. Last week we got rained out on Friday and the weekend and Monday was sort of a pressure release. Today I knew team Bling would be there and could only hope we had a reasonable A group. Most of those wishes came true today. By 9 am we had MacGyver, Gambler, Bulldozer and Bloodhound. Then there was Huntress, Quicksilver, Digger, Sasquatch, Scott and Daniel and we hit latham to ride over to Lyon and North.

We no sooner past Devonshire than Bulldozer came flying by me and the draft almost sucked me onto his back wheel. By Esplanade I couldn’t even see the rest of the group and thought we might it to Nuevo before the rest of the group caught us. But that thought quickly left me when my right knee began to tighten up and by Cottonwood I was more or less reduced to spinning my small ring just to keep going. After we turned onto Ramona Boulevard I stopped and waited for the rest of the group. As soon as they were satisfied I could still ride the A group left and Dragon Slayer decided to stay with me to help the B group west on the Expressway. Both Sasquatch and Scott had gone with the A group and after Dragon Slayer provided me with some PEDs I was able to assist him in pulling the B group after the fleeing A group. We never saw the A group again but we did catch Sasquatch and Scott at the stop light were we made the turn for Juniper flats. A quick Regroup and we were on our way again.

Daniel was simply working on mileage and was in no hurry to get up to Contour and Digger offered to ride sweep for me so I could go play with the rest of the group. So I did my best to catch up to Huntress, Quicksilver and Dragon Slayer as we past the elementary school and got to them just as we noticed Quicksilver’s rear wheel wasn’t square in the dropouts and we stopped to fix that before we rounded the corner onto Juniper Flats road and started the climb.

About the time we got to the first rise I got into a good spin and started to make a reasonable run at the hill. Dragon Slayer stayed with me for a while and then fell back to lead team Bling up the hill, a move that I am not always in favor of because I know team bling as a target poster in their clubhouse with my picture and some concentric circles on it. As I got to the top of Juniper Flats I realized Dragon Slayer wasn’t going to run me down so I stopped to regroup.

By the time we were ready to drop off of the hill we noticed Daniel was missing so Digger said he would wait for him and we could start down to Florida on the back side of Juniper. When we got there we got a call from Digger saying he would take Daniel on a shortcut and we should go do the planned ride without them. So we headed for Menifee and Dragon Slayer led us to McCall and that little climb. I took us to Hillpointe and started the run to Sumner. As we rounded the corner Quicksilver started to make a run for it but I knew she wouldn’t hammer it on the downhill so I got to Antelope and Domenigoni before she did. We then headed for Lindenburger and ended up breaking into two smaller groups with Dragon Slayer and the Bling team leading and I had Sasquatch and Scott. We all regrouped at Winchester farms and picked up Digger and Daniel.

Four of us left first, Huntress, Quicksilver, Dragon Slayer and I, and headed for home on Stowe. We made short work of Stowe and California and soon were on Stetson and headed for the Airport. We made our way out to Sanderson before heading to Lowes and around back to Acacia.

As we neared Acacia I was talking to Huntress and admitted we were very lucky to live where we do so we can enjoy riding as much as we do. I feel blessed to have friends to ride with and hopefully the feel the same. But at least I can say we have fun doing what we do.

I got back to the parking lot with Huntress, dragon Slayer and Quicksilver before heading to the bike shop to check on Daniel, Digger and Sasquatch. Once we talked for a while I rode back to Yale with Daniel and circled back to my house for lunch and a shower. I hardly even noticed the extra miles and my knee seemed none the worse for wear for the extra effort.