By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) I looked out this morning and was a little disappointed to see overcast skies. It wasn’t all that cold and there was no wind but it wasn’t as nice as Wednesday. It didn’t matter much to me because we were heading for Bautista today and I was looking forwards to the climb. I tossed on my retro kit and headed for Burger King to start the day. Digger and Bloodhound were waiting for me and Highlander was already unloading his van when I pulled up. Mark arrived along with Pony Express and Jackal. Next Huntress and Sasquatch rode up and we were about ready to go and to our surprise Surgeon showed up. By that time we were ready to go so I took them out to Latham and over to Lyon to start the ride.

The goal as I saw it was to keep the pace down so all of the riders could get to Bautista fresh and then they might enjoy the climb much more. That didn’t seem to hold true for Bloodhound because he simply kept pulling away and soon Sasquatch followed him. We were back together on Lyon and Stetson and Bloodhound took us to Thornton and west towards State Street.

Once again Bloodhound took the lead and by the time we were out to Columbia he has pulled away from us and once again Sasquatch went with him. By the high school Jackal took off after them and left the rest of us to ride over speed bump ourselves. We stayed close together over speed bump and were riding as a group when we past Lake. We were losing Bloodhound, Sasquatch and Jackal but we didn’t care because we still had the turn at Fairview ahead of us and I thought the leaders might wait at Bautista till we got there.

There was no one waiting for us as we got to Fairview so we stopped and regrouped before Jackal came back to check on us. Once we got ready to leave Digger took a head start and headed for Bautista while some of us shed jackets and leggings. As soon as everyone was ready we gave chase to Digger and headed for Bautista led by Highlander. Huntress and I chatted as he led us to the turn and headed east up the canyon to start the run. Jackal made a break first and I started to chase him at the first hard right turn. However I heard a terrible squeak and pulled over to discover it was my cleat. Once fixed I headed for the rise at the Dam and soon crossed the dry wash and headed for the Picket fence before Jackal once again made a run for it.

We watched Jackal pull away and then slow ever so slightly before I started to close. I had mark with me and soon he had his cadence down and pulled around me. I decided to pick it up a bit even if it was a Friday and followed Mark as we continued on closing on Jackal. We caught him just before we entered the last stand of shade trees and just before the beginning of the last three climbs and I stayed with Mark till we had a 100 yard gap before letting him go and down shifting to a slightly easier gear. We caught a new rider, Ben on the way up the second hill and Mark started to pull away from me. I got into a stead spin and soon noticed Jackal trying to recover some of his lost distance. I made it to the end of the road first and noticed Bulldozer, Gambler, Daredevil and MacGyver were already waiting to make their second run down and back up the Hill. Once they left we got ready for the downhill ourselves.

The ride back down the canyon was an E ticket ride with Jackal starting things off and changing places with Sasquatch and I. Soon we had separated ourselves from everyone but Pony Express and were carving the corners like we knew what we were doing. But the time we got back down to the white wooden fence I started thinking about the sprint to the dam. I kept cornering wide with the thought that Jackal of Sasquatch would take the lead at the river bed and sure enough Jackal past me and I dropped in on his wheel as we headed for the dam. I wasn’t in the best position however because Pony Express was right on my wheel in the perfect position for a double pass. When I made a move to sprint around Jackal Pony express went with me and my Garmin picked that moment to break fee of its mount and fly over my shoulder and almost took both Sasquatch and Pony express out. Sasquatch stopped and picked up the Garmin and it was still working so I put it in my pocket and rode down to Fairview to join the other riders. We headed for Florida and had us up to about 30 by the time we crossed the bridge and had to slow for the stop sign. We then all turned onto Florida and made our way to Carl’s. We met MacGyver, Gambler and Daredevil at Carl’s but they didn’t stay. In fact only a few of us had coffee along with our new friend Ben. Soon we were ready to head for home and headed down Lincoln to Park.

Riders started dropping off as we got to their streets and by the time we were back to Latham it was down to Highlander, Surgeon, Sasquatch, Mark and I. Three of us turned on Lyon and stopped in to look at a bike frame sasquatch was interested in before heading for home ourselves. I got home with just over 40 miles on my Computer and looking forward to a hot shower. I can’t think of a better way to end the week than a bike ride with friends.