By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) We were going to finish the week with a fairly flat ride around Lake Perris and out to Gilman before coming home. I had a new plan for my Friday rides and that was to just work on my own PRs and not try and run down the big dog breaks. I would have to see how that plan worked today. I headed for Burger King trying to make sure I was warmed up and ready to go. Digger, Bloodhound and Minotaur were already waiting and Highlander was unloading his van. Harry and Pirate arrived followed by Bulldozer, Surgeon and Barracuda. By 8:02 it was obvious no one else was going to show up so we headed out onto Latham and headed for Lyon.

We slowly picked up speed as we turned north on Lyon and rapidly moved towards Menlo with Bloodhound and Bulldozer leading the way. Soon they were joined by Surgeon and soon the rest of us had to chase them all the way to Esplanade before I got up front and pulled for Ramona.

By the time we rounded the corner onto Ramona Boulevard and headed for Sanderson Bloodhound and Bulldozer were long gone. I got us to the stop light at the Expressway and then pulled us to Warren before giving up the lead and following Pirate and Barracuda west towards Bridge. Barracuda took the pull at Bridge and pulled us all the way past Lakeview where Bloodhound and Bulldozer were waiting. We didn’t stop and they had to chase us to the beginning of the climb to Bernasconi where I slipped by and pulled over the first roller. Bulldozer past me as we crested the hill and took Bloodhound with him. But I managed to stay on their wheel till we crested the second roller. Finally I took the lead as we past the middle school and took us to Evans for a regroup. Highlander left us at Evans while the rest of us headed north towards Iris.

Once we made it to Iris we stopped at Mickey Ds for water and a restroom break and made sure we were all together before getting back on the road and heading east to go past the Park Gate and continue on towards Alessandro.

It is a slight uphill grade heading to the park gate and we spread out quite a bit till we crested the rise and started down the slight grade where the road turns into Moreno Beach and narrows down just before Alessandro east.

As we ramped it up on Alessandro the road got progressively worse till we were dodging pot holes like ships dodging mines. Minotaur lost attention for a second and almost ran into the rider in front of him breaking the group into two parts. I found myself in back with Harry and Minotaur Chasing Pirate, Bloodhound, Bulldozer, Surgeon and Barracuda. Harry and I managed to pull onto Gilman about 100 yards after the lead group and I still had enough steam to close on the ones that the lead group dropped. Harry assisted me when I started to fade and soon we ran down Pirate and then Surgeon and headed back past Bridge where I pulled again to Sanderson. Harry and I waited for Pirate and Minotaur at Sanderson but never saw Digger so we headed south towards the Expressway and continued south on Sanderson towards Cottonwood. Harry took over the pull as we came up to Esplanade and moved us towards Devonshire.

Pirate left us first and the rest of us finally made it to Devonshire just in time to catch the light and watch Highlander drive by. Harry pulled us to Kirby where Minotaur pulled around and sprinted for the parking lot. We stopped for a few minutes while Harry loaded his bike in his car and then headed for home ourselves. I got home with 49 miles on the clock and some hot and tired legs. But I had a great ride and picked up several PRs that pleased me to no end.