By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Wednesdays are always longer or have more climbing than the other rides during the week so this week would continue the tradition. We would be doing the Goetz, Perris, Nuevo Winchester ride and I for one love that ride. I headed out to the parking lot with a new set of tires on the bike and a spare tire and tube for one of the new riders that had flatted on the way in. By 8am we had a group together and were almost ready to head out when we noticed Newsboy had a bad bulge in his tire and to use the spare I brought. A few minutes later we were headed down Gilmore to Acacia and then Kirby.

Digger was staying up very well with the main group while Bulldozer had pulled away with two on the young Turks following him. As we got to the corner the third young Turk, Newsboy, pulled up nextto me eager to give chase. I persuaded him to stay with us and save his energy for the climb on Goetz. But you could tell he was straining at the leash to give chase. We did catch the light on Sanderson red and had to wait for a while before heading to Stetson and Wally World.

As we made our way to Domenigoni I could see there was no need to chase Bulldozer and his group so we simply settled into a steady pace line west towards Warren Road. It was one of the most co-operative lines we had had in a long time as Dragon Slayer, Newsboy and Pirate all took turns after I gave up the lead and not only got us to Warren but all the way to Winchester in one piece. That of course just set things up for the Saddle sprint. Pirate was the sacrificial lamb going into the climb with Newsboy sitting in third, I had forth and dragon Slayer was in fifth. The Bling team were behind up but didn’t look like they were going to sprint. As soon as Surgeon started to go around Newsboy hit the sprint. I followed a few strokes later and Dragon Slayer came after me. I caught Surgeon when he spun out and Dragon Slayer caught me just before the fence line. We found the Bulldozer group waiting to regroup at the top.

As we headed down the back side of the saddle and made our way to Lindenburger Bloodhound took off of the front again but this time he was chased by Brian and finally Bulldozer. The rest of us followed a stop light back and made for a regroup and nather stop at Carl’s on Murrieta. The group decided to break up before Goetz with Highlander taking the Bling team home on La Ladera. Surgeon had left us well before Carl’s.

Once again Bloodhound took off and Bulldozer headed for home as we got close to Goetz. This time Newsboy and Brian chased Bloodhound while Bill, Dragon Slayer and I followed to Normandy. The two chaser caught Bloodhound on the first climb and Bill and I pulled away from Dragon Slayer. Pirate caught Bill and I before the second climb but Bill picked it up a bit and I fell off a bit till just before the Moose Lodge. Pirate dropped a gear so I went around him and over the top of Goetz about 100 yards behind Bill. We regrouped just past Ethanack before heading towards the City of Parris. We ended up taking Goetz to the jog over to Redlands before heading north to Nuevo and the turn back east.

Things fell apart a bit as we moved east as Dragon Slayer took part of the group past Evans and I fell back to pick up Digger and Minotaur. We met Dragon Slayer at Menifee and said our good byes as we turned south to head back to Florida. The rest of the group was long gone by the time we got to Central. We didn’t see them by the time we got to Mapes so we turned over to Briggs and headed for the dump road. We never saw Newsboy, Bill, Brian or Bloodhound again and finally found Pirate waiting at Winchester farms. We had a quick cold drink before heading back east on Stowe. We stayed together all the way to Stetson and parted from Digger at the airport road while we stayed on the smoother Stetson all the way to Sanderson before heading back to Lowes and around to Acacia.

We made our way to Gilmore and headed back to Florida where Pirate and I headed east towards Lyon and I stopped at the bike shop to check on Digger and had a cold drink before heading for home and a hot shower before lunch. No records today but it felt like a solid ride.