By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Talk about a change in weather and you will find the difference between last Friday and this Monday morning. Friday it was hot and reached close to 9o by the time I got home from my ride. Saturday it started to rain in the afternoon and it continued off and on through Sunday night and early Monday morning. I decided to put on a light weight kit and got ready to head out of my door when I got a text from Brian asking for help out on Domenigoni. I put my Bike in my car and headed out to Winchester to rescue him and get back in time for the start of the ride. I found Brian trying to apply a we patch to his tube so we tossed his bike in my car and headed to the parking lot to meet up with the rest of the group. By 8am we had the tire changed and nine riders ready to head out on a day of small climbs and sprints. We rode down Gilmore and west on Acacia to Kirby with Bloodhound in the lead. I could hear Jackal filling in Brian on ride dynamics as we headed for the railroad tracks on Kirby.

By the time we had worked our way west on Cypress and managed to make the light on Sanderson Brian had been talked into shadowing Bloodhound so he started to move forward towards the front of the group as we past Mustang and headed for Domenigoni. Somehow we caught that light green as well and were soon following Bloodhound to Searl and the first Climb on Seven Dollar hill. Tax Man took the by-pass and waited for the rest of us to come back to Searl. I started up the hill last but did manage to catch, Quicksilver, Hacker, Digger, Bill, and Jackal but not Bloodhound and Brian. We did ger back down about the same time before heading east to State street only to split up because of the light on State. Quicksilver and I rode in last place till we got to Stetson and managed to close on Hacker and Bill before the turn towards Ramona Bowl on Girard. I could see Digger and Jackal well ahead of us just starting up the steep part of the Bowl climb. I picked up the pace and managed to catch Digger about half way to the top and Jackal a few yards after that. Bloodhound, Brian and Hacker were already waiting when we got there and Brian took off with Bloodhound by the time the rest of the group collected themselves for the ride to Crest. We ended up having to take Thornton to Lake because of construction on Crest.

I had been planning to simply add Bautista to three climbs turning the ride into about 45 miles. So it was not my intention to hammer my way to Fairview. After turning back out to Stetson I started the pull and took us to Fairview and a comfortable 18 mph before turning it over to Jackal to pull us to Bautista and a short regroup. Bloodhound and Brian were long gone by the time we restarted the Bautista climb. I stayed back with hacker and Quicksilver as Jackal and Bill pulled away. It only took about 35 minutes ton get to the Camp at the end of the road to regroup.

It took Digger maybe two extra minutes to get to the top and we took a short break to let him catch his breath before starting back down towards Fairview. Bloodhound and Brian were already gone and we decided to pass on Cranston and planned on heading straight to Carl’s for Coffee and conversation.

We pulled into Carl’s with only five riders but we were joined by Brian by the time we got parked. After a few minutes of talking and rehydration we were ready to get back on the bikes and head west back to our cars. We only had Digger, Quicksilver, Jackal, Hacker, Brian and me as we moved out onto Lincoln together.

The ride home tends to be a cool down time except today Digger seemed to be more energetic than normal and kept our pace up as we moved west past Lake Street and then Hemet Street to make our way to Park with Digger leading us past the Zebra lot and over to the Devonshire jog where Digger would leave us.

We slowed it down a bit before making our way to Santa Fe and down to Latham to once again head west towards State Street and line up for the sprint we all knew would come once we got to Lyon. I had lined up on Hackers back wheel and planned on staying there once the sprint started. However as we crossed Lyon I hear Quicksilver claim she was going to stick to my wheel like white on rice so I started the sprint myself, almost pulling Hacker into a draft and raced for the Pep Boys parking lot. Hacker got me just before the turn for the trucks and cars but I had dropped the white on rice Quicksilver when she discovered she had selected the wrong gear to start a sprint. So I guess I can safely say a good day was had by all.