After christmas dinner wallow

By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Yesterday was a day of celebration. Yesterday was Christmas where we gave gifts and thanks for what God has given us. Yesterday was a day of mass calorie consumption by most if not all of our cycling group. Now the question has to be asked what happens to Mammals, or Mamils when talking about most of our cyclists, after consuming mass calories. The answer is we crawl off and hibernate till the calories wear off like a lion or a wolf or even a bear might. That idea made the prospect of a 50 mile ride the day after Christmas questionable even to me as I got dressed and headed for the parking lot. Digger most have felt the need to burn a few calories as did Rocky, Dragon Slayer and Sidewinder. ME 109 showed up with his fixed gear. Rocky, Bloodhound and RCMP looked ready to burn some calories. Minotaur, Hacker and Sasquatch were the last to arrive and Sasquatch was on his new machine. We now have a Samurai Sasquatch. Not a bad group for a cold December morning.

As usual when riding with Bloodhound we had to follow him to Lyon before starting north. We started to string out a bit and I for one was far too cold, or at least my legs were too cold, to participate in any spirited riding towards Devonshire. Stretched out or not we got in a loose pace line and quickly closing in on Esplanade where we would close in on each other and start out in a bit tighter pace line. That movement repeated itself as we past Seventh Street and continued north.

After Cottonwood the group started to split up and I fell back to pick up the back half of the group. We were about fifty yards behind the lead group as we turned onto Ramona Boulevard and head west for the first time of the day. We did manage to close a bit as we got to Sanderson but got caught at the light and didn’t regroup till after the right turn onto the Expressway. Things weren’t working just as we had planned because Sasquatch had a seat bolt come loose so only Rocky and I stopped to assist him. Digger was in-between the lead group and us when we got back on the road but we managed to catch him before we got to the Valero station on Lakeview. We made a quick regroup while Digger kept going. After a quick head count we took off after Digger believing we could catch Digger before he crested Bernasconi. As we got to the first part of the climb I got behind RCMP and Bloodhound and chased them most of the way to Bernasconi. I tried to save some energy thinking I could make a hard push towards the top and maybe get a PR for the climb to the top. It didn’t work however because just as I was about to get up to sprint I noticed the gate was closed and locked so there would be no PR today. Rocky and I rode together to the bike trail and managed to finally catch digger just before the Marina where we were going to regroup.

It was rather impressive thinking that while people living in states to the east of us were getting rain, sleet and snow we were riding to a Lake park white clear blue skies. Sill we didn’t have all day so we got back on the bikes and headed for the north gate and Coffee at Mickey Ds. We didn’t get very far before Sasquatch broke a chain. By chance several of us had a master link and Dragon Slayer was elected to the task of getting Sasquatch back on the road.

Once the chain we fixed we headed for the climb before the last drop down to Iris and then west to Mickey Ds for coffee. We were all together as we turned left onto Lasalle and started south. It didn’t take long before we were picking up speed and Bloodhound had us at over 20 on the upslope. Soon RCMP past Bloodhound on the grade and dragon Slayer, Sasquatch and I followed. After the final drop to Ramona expressway there was just five of us but ME-109 caught us at the light on Rider were we regrouped and waited for everyone t join us before heading back towards Ramona.

Bloodhound and ME-109 decided to leave early and were almost to Ramona before Minotaur took off on a run of his own. RCMP decided to leave us as well while the rest of us reeled in Minotaur and then Sasquatch followed by Side Winder and Dragon Slayer rolled on to the corner at Ramona. I got a jump on them climbing the roller and made an east run back towards Bernasconi. Sasquatch, Dragon Slayer and Hacker caught me before the last roller and we rode together over the bridge. We regrouped again at the Valero Station and Dragon Slayer headed for home before we got back and headed east as well.

Once on the expressway we decided to do everything we could to keep the whole group in a pace line. Minotaur took the first pull and took us all the way to Bridge. I pulled us to Warren and gave the lead back to Minotaur and Sasquatch. They pulled us back to Sanderson where we turned south. I opted not to attack the segment today for several reasons. The greatest reason we I was simply too tired to burn any more matches. So I pulled part way to the water department and Rocky pulled us to Cottonwood. We lost Sidewinder as he moved over to Lyon and we continued on to Fruitvale.

I still had enough left to pull us back to Menlo where Digger left us. I then pulled us to Devonshire and started us on the eastward ride back towards Kirby. Minotaur took over and got us to Kirby where we got the light and head to wait to head for Gilmore. Sasquatch took off for Lyon while the rest of us stopped at Burger King to check on Sidewinder. Sidewinder had already picked up his truck so we rode over to the bike shop only to find Sasquatch having his ride checked out and smiling like a kid at Christmas.

After watching Sasquatch drool over his machine, like an old cowboy movie where the cowboy kisses his horse and leaves the girl in the background, we left the shop and headed for home and I left Sasquatch at Palm and headed for home and a hot shower. Just over 50 miles today pushing me to just over 7500 miles for the year.