By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Here we are on another Wednesday and another play day for me. That means I get to ride however I feel like and the group pretty much takes care of itself. The plan today however was to work with the Bling Team and see if I could help them with their climbing spin. That meant I would have to keep in sight of them all the way to Lakeview and over the rollers past Lake Perris. So I was not all that disappointed with the overcast sky when I woke up because I knew it would burn off but we would have a cool start to get us to Nuevo. I got to Burger King to see Digger waiting as usual and Highlander was already pulling into the parking lot. By the time I had my coffee Bloodhound, MacGyver and Bulldozer where waiting. A few minutes later Quicksilver and Huntress drove up followed by Sasquatch. Soon Gambler and Pony Expressed arrived. Willy, “Orca” and Daniel, “Minotaur” followed close behind. Mark, “Rooster” and Surgeon rounded out the group, at least when we started out. We headed for Latham and headed for Lyon to start the day.

First think Bloodhound told me was he was planning on trying to keep the group together and with that thought in mind we turned north on Lyon only to have Bloodhound and Minotaur pull away from us. It looked for all of the world like a two man break away. I set a more reasonable pace and scratched off one block after another slowly building up speed and warming up our legs getting ready for the hard run on the Expressway to Burnasconi. We were well behind Bloodhound and Minotaur as we came to the corner on Ramona Boulevard.

We did get close to Bloodhound and Minotaur as we headed for Sanderson and turned just behind them as we headed for the light on the Expressway. Only a few riders made it through on the first light but we were all together as we headed for Warren Road. At least till Gambler, Bulldozer and MacGyver picked up the pace and Sasquatch went with them. By the time we got to Warren Bloodhound joined them and Rooster took over the pull and led the rest of us towards Bridge Street. I knew the A group was not going to be with us for the whole ride so I could see no reason to try and pull the rest of the group any faster to try and keep up with the A group. It worked pretty well because we more or less all got to the light at Hansen together and picked up Dragon Slayer and Ben. When we got ready to head for Evans over the Lake Perris Rollers Surgeon got a flat and several riders stayed with him to get it changed. Highlander and Digger headed out onto the Expressway and a little later the Bling Team and I gave chase. We caught Digger just as we past the waiting A group on Bernasconi and set our sights on Highlander heading for the second roller. We caught Highlander just at the crest of the last roller and past him as we started the downhill. Spinning over two rollers was new for both Huntress and Quicksilver but they took the yelling well and seemed happy with the results as we stopped on Evans to regroup.

Once we were all back together we headed north on Evans and headed for Iris and the Mickey Ds for coffee and a quick regroup. After everyone was refreshed we started to head back out to Iris and headed for Alessandro but when I got to the light with the rest of the group Rooster yelled at me that Sasquatch had a flat. I went back with Rooster and we helped Sasquatch get back on the road. When we got to Iris the group was gone so we set out a chase that lasted more than 20 miles to see if we could catch them.

I pulled for all I was worth on Alessandro and tried to get us to Gilman to see if we could even see the group in the distance. We couldn’t see anyone as we turned east and I started to run out of steam so Rooster took over pulling and we closed in on Bridge. We had to stop twice to fix Sasquatch’s chain. I got my second wind and pulled us to Sanderson and Sasquatch left us and headed for State Street. Rooster and I headed south on Sanderson and just missed Digger turning on Ramona as we continued on south. We spotted Minotaur and caught him before we got to Cottonwood then pulled him to Devonshire and headed east. Looks like we missed Orca crashing into the curb and closed on Highlander and the Bling Team as they headed for Gilmore. We hit Gilmore just as they were pulling into the Burger King parking lot. We stopped to talk and found out about Orca.

Rooster and I headed for the Hemet Bike Shop to take Jackal’s water bottle back to him and we ran into several other riders there before heading for home ourselves. I ended up riding east on Whittier with Jackal and Rooster before heading for home myself. A hot shower and I was set for the day.