By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) One week and counting, at least for the next Century ride in La Quinta. It seemed like a good idea to do a ride with a similar profile to first part of the Patriot Century. Goetz would be just such a ride. It had 16 miles of flat followed by a climb and another 20 miles of flat, perfect to get ready for this weekend. I was up a bit early and had a chance to finish some coffee and breakfast before heading to the parking lot to meet Digger. As I got to Burger King I was glad I had arm warmers on because as we stood there talking a fog rolled in almost blotting out the clear skies I had seen when leaving my house. As we waited only Sasquatch and Closer showed up for the ride. By 8:05 am we headed down Gilmore to Acacia and then to Kirby so we could head south to Cypress and over to Johnston to start the day.

Once we were on Sanderson we fell into a nice little pace line and I managed to pull us all the way to Domenigoni and started us west towards Warren. I stayed out front all the way to Warren and to be honest I felt a bit underpowered today. Yes I had it set on cruise control at 20mph but I wasn’t sure I could hold that all the way to Warren. I did manage to hold the pace not only to Warren but to the dry wash where I gave the lead to Sasquatch and fell in line myself. I followed till we got to the trees just past Winchester and then pulled all the way to the top of the saddle for a regroup. We took a minute to hydrate and have a snack before heading down the backside of the saddle and west towards Menifee.

One of the advantages to a small group is it is easy to keep track of everyone and keep the pace low enough so everyone can hang on. We made it to Menifee and then I pulled to Antelope and waited to get over the freeway and to the light on Haun. From there Closer led us to Bradley and most of the way to Carl’s for a nature break and a chance for some to refill their water bottles. Once that was done we headed for the light at Murrieta before rolling on towards Goetz.

As the four of us made our way to Goetz and turned north we knew there would be four different types of climbs being made. Digger and Closer were just planning on gearing down and making the climb easy. Sasquatch was going to try and match me going up the hill as far as he could. To be honest is he had a bike with more gears and STI shifters he might have past me before the last climb but he wasn’t able to downshift soon enough to stay with me at the Elks club rise and then couldn’t close again before we reached the crest and started down the back side on Goetz. Once we were all back together I took us back to Murrieta and south to work our way to McCall to head east over Hospital Hill.

We didn’t have any trouble getting to and over Hospital hill and I ended up getting us to Heritage where Closer took over and got us to Simpson. As we turned after the light on Simpson I started the lace line and pulled till we got to Leon before turning it over to Sasquatch and following him most of the way to Winchester. I pulled us most of the way to Stowe only to have Sasquatch sprint past me 40 yards for the corner and beating me to Winchester Farms. We had coffee there and Digger left first believing we would catch him before he got back to Burger King. We took a lot longer before the three of us headed down Stowe towards California. Closer and I pulled to Stetson and then we rode together to Warren before I pulled in front to take us to Sanderson.

We easily made our way east on Stetson and all the way to Sanderson to turn north towards Lowes. I took us around to Acacia and then to Kirby before heading back north on Gilmore and left Closer at Burger King while I headed over to Hemet Bike before heading for home and lunch. I think I will enjoy the Century very much.