By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Monday is supposed to be the easy ride day. The plan for today was just that an easy ride planned for an easy day. I expected a few returning riders and good weather but other than that it was a free day to ride as you like just to get in the miles. It was a small but energetic group that showed up by 8am and as predicted many were returning riders. we hit the road heading south right at 8am, well closer to 8:05 so Closer could pump up his rear tire.

As Bloodhound took off down Gilmore and onto Acacia I had commented that at least today no one would be chasing him and true to form he left us on Kirby and was gone before we got to Cypress and headed west. We followed at a good clip but he came flying back at us before we got halfway to Johnston and then circled back to lead us to Sanderson and south to Stetson. I let him go again but we kept catching him at the lights till we were next to the airport and heading towards Warren. By then we were on his wheel till we crossed Warren and headed for California Street. He started to push harder and soon he and I were well in front of the rest of the group so I fell back to pull them to Stowe and let him go again.

Once on Stowe Surgeon gave up the lead to Closer, followed by Quicksilver, Metric Man, Highlander, and me. Tax Man and Digger were in the back. Closer pulled way too long so I jumped to the front followed by Quicksilver and took the group to Winchester Farms where Bloodhound was waiting. We took a short break and started to head out onto Winchester when I noticed Closer was still setting in the parking lot. He was out of gas and planned on going home. He admitted to having way too much too eat the night before and had pushed too hard too early in the ride. I promised to keep the pace down and we would pull him all day if we had to if it would make it easier. So we took off south on Winchester towards the dump road.

Once headed west again we split up a bit and Quicksilver pulled us to the Wild West bar. As we started towards the rise I took the lead but some weren’t able to hold the pace so I had to fall back and make sure Closer and Tax Man joined us on Leon. I continued to lead the smaller group till we got to Briggs Street and regrouped with Quicksilver, Metric Man, Bloodhound and Surgeon. Tax Man left us when we got to Lindenburger and we headed to Heritage to work our way over to Menifee and the AM/PM for a water break. Once we were back on our way we got separated at the light on Florida and had to wait to regroup at the first paved road. Bloodhound rode right by us and headed for Mapes alone. I took everyone else to the top of the grade where we would pick up the pace and head for Central.

Once we were headed on the down slope Surgeon took the lead and pulled almost all the way to the stop sign. I took a short lead and he jumped back in front till we crossed Central and I took us the rest of the way to Lakeview. When we got to the corner of Lakeview and Nuevo Bloodhound was waiting. We then headed north towards Ramona expressway with first Quicksilver and then Metric Man leading. We rounded the corner onto the Expressway as soon as Digger caught us and headed back east. Bloodhound never waited with us for Digger and so we were way behind him heading east. When it was my turn to pull I tried to close on him but while cutting the distance between us to about 30 yards was easy enough the rest of the group simply faded off of my back wheel. I shut down the pursuit and the group caught me by Warren while Bloodhound faded into the distance.

I thought Surgeon would head for home on warren but he stayed with us as we headed to Sanderson and decided to take that street down to Devonshire to get back to the parking lot. That moved caused us to lose Digger and we ended up0 following Surgeon back to Esplanade where he left us. I then took over the lead and got us past Menlo before Highlander took us to Devonshire and Metric Man took us back to Gilmore and finally the parking lot where Quicksilver was all smiles and said, “it is all in a days work.”

We talked for a few minutes before Metric Man, Closer, Quicksilver and Highlander packed up their cars and headed for home. I then rode over to the bike shop and checked on a new cassette before leaving for home myself. All in all it was a great ride.