By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) It was time to get up and I wasn’t ready. The alarm hadn’t gone off but it was close enough that I got out of bed and headed for the kitchen. I looked outside and saw that is was over cast but not raining and felt myself saddened by the visual. For the first time in a very long time I was tired and sore and wanted to stay home in bed. But I knew that if I stayed home I would regret it all day long so I got dressed and had breakfast. It was just warm enough to forgo a jacket as I got on my bike and headed for Burger King with just a slight grunt from moving my sore legs. Digger and Sasquatch were already there when I pulled up but the restaurant was closed so there was no coffee. I needed coffee and I knew once Highlander got there he would need the little boy’s room. Bloodhound, Art, Tax Man and Minotaur arrived followed by Gambler, Bulldozer and McGyver. Just as we were getting ready to leave Papillion rode up leaving me to believe there would be two groups today. I started us off on Latham and headed for Lyon before Bloodhound tried to pick the pace up. I had absolutely no desire to chase him and it looked like no one else was interested either.

For reasons only known to fate I started pulling us north and stayed out front till I go to Esplanade and had to wait for the light to change. Sitting on the other side of the street from us was Mantis. It turns out it was his birthday and he decided to take the day off and join us for a ride. There was no sign of Bloodhound and the A group was following at a respectable distance as we got to Ramona and headed west.

I was still leading the group as we moved all the way to Sanderson and went north to the light at the Expressway where Bloodhound was waiting. When the light changed I gave up the lead and soon the whole A group plus Minotaur, Sasquatch and Highlander pulled away form me leaving me to pull Digger, Mantis and Tax man to Nuevo. To his credit Tax Man relieved me when he could and worked with me all the way to Hansen where we found Bloodhound, Papillion, Minotaur, Sasquatch and Highlander waiting. The rest of the group didn’t stop. Highlander decided to take his leg warmers off and we all got ready to head south towards Condor and Juniper Flats.

Once we decided to head to the Flats Bloodhound and Papillion left first and I followed with Sasquatch, Minotaur and Mantis with Digger riding in the back. Sasquatch rounded onto Condor first and we waited for Minotaur while Highlander and Tax Man headed for Nuevo Road and a way around the climb. Once Minotaur rolled by us we chased him to the elementary school and got ready to head up Juniper Flats road. I decided to kick it up a bit and we dropped Minotaur.

Mantis stayed back at first so only Sasquatch was with me as we crested the first little rise and headed for the second. As we crested I made a push of it and broke away from Sasquatch and Mantis. The problem was my heart rate monitor hit the red zone and I had to back off. I was pulled in and had to spin till my Heart Rate dropped back into the 140s before I could attack again. This time it stuck and I got to the stop sign first and waited for everyone to get to the top. As soon as Digger arrived we dropped off of the hill and headed for Briggs to meet up with Highlander and Tax Man. Once back on our way we were surprised to find Briggs paved all the way to the dump road. Minotaur pulled us almost to Leon where I took over and pulled us to the rise heading for the flag sprint. But the wind was in our face so there was no real effort at sprinting for the flag. We continued on to Winchester where we headed north towards Stowe with Highlander stretching the pace out and holding me off from an attempted pass. I think he likes his new bike. We had a quick cup of coffee before heading back east on Stowe and heading for home.

Sasquatch had been attacking the Bunch Sprint and gave every indication he was going to attack it again today. So I noticed he was picking up the pace on Stowe just before we got to California. I managed to get the jump on him coming out of the corner and beat him to Stetson. It still wasn’t an improvement on his best time but as I said we never seemed to get a favorable wind today. We regrouped and headed for Warren with Minotaur leading the way. We just didn’t let him turn this part of the ride into a drag race. We all got back to the cars and visited for a while before heading for home and starting our weekend of rest. Good day even if I was sore all day.