By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) It has been a strange week. We had our first rain out for the year Wednesday and a small group on Monday. So I had no big hopes for the Friday group. I even got up a bit early and had breakfast and sat watching the history channel before heading over to the parking lot to meet with the group. After having coffee with digger imagine my surprise when we had fourteen riders by 9am. They were Digger, Highlander, Tax Man, Closer, Rocky, Huntress, Quicksilver, Gambler, Bandit, Sasquatch, Bloodhound, Art,(Me-109) , and Dragon Slayer.

We moved east on Latham and headed for State as a group. Bloodhound pulled away at the stop sign like he usually does and the rest of us just settled into an easy pace line as we turned the corner and headed for Devonshire and then Menlo. By Fruitvale Digger was testing out his new crank and Bottom Bracket and took the lead to pull us to Esplanade where Bloodhound had pulled up after the light. Before we got to De Anza Socrates joined us as we moved towards Ramona Boulevard.

The Boulevard was closed because of flooding so we went up to the expressway before heading west. For some reason I decided to hang onto Bloodhounds back wheel as we pulled up to Sanderson sitting right next to a Hay Truck. When the light changed Bandit and I took off trying to get up to speed to fall in o the draft when the truck passed us. The truck picked up speed slowly but moved to the left lane just as he got to me. Bandit caught the move before I did and had to wave me off as I came over. I did get some draft in but fell off at 29 while Bandit was in the sweet spot all the way to Warren. I slowed to pick up the rest of the group and we headed for Bridge. I ended on the tail end of the big Dog group and stayed with them till they got to Hansen. Sasquatch fell out and I couldn’t close the gap before the light turned red and had to join them at the Valero for a regroup.

As we got ready to head west towards the rollers in front of Lake Perris I thought everyone knew we were turning on Rider and would meet at Evans and Rider for another regroup. We headed west with most of the Big dogs in front of me. Dragon Slayer and Bloodhound had the front with Bandit and Gambler holding number three and four slot. I was in five with Highlander right behind me. Once bloodhound took the lead the checker game started and Gambler pulled put with Bandit on his wheel. I went after them just as Dragon Slayer pulled around Bloodhound. I got by Bloodhound and headed for Bernasconi but I could close on the front two. Me-109 caught me well before the top of the first climb and Bloodhound got by just after we started downhill towards the second climb. I decided to back off after we started the second climb to see if I could attack the segment on Rider. It didn’t do me any good because I was well below my pest time rounding the corner heading for Evans and the regroup. When I got there no one was waiting so I pulled up to collect the B group. For some reason the B group didn’t turn on Rider and went all the way to Evans on the Expressway. After they got to Evans Rocky flatted and they must have told Highlander and the other Bs to go on while Socrates and Closer stayed with Rocky. The group was splitting us but this wasn’t going to be the last time. When the Bs got to Us dragon Slayer and I headed for Orange street to get over to Nuevo.

Dragon Slayer and I pulled the group to Nuevo and then to Menifee and headed towards Central so we could make our way to Florida. After Central I got to the front and got us to the next stop sign. At that point we started to split again with Dragon Slayer, Sasquatch, Quicksilver and me heading for Mapes and pulling away from Highlander, Huntress, Tax Man and Digger. We dropped Quicksilver at the ride in front of the Nursery but collected her at Mapes before taking off for Florida thinking she was in tow. However Dragon Slayer and I worked together to make short work of the Mapes to Florida run and we dropped her again. But as we pulled into the AM/PM to wait the B group rode on by. We saw Quicksilver heading south so Dragon Slayer went with her to make sure she waited for Huntress. The only thing was Huntress and Highlander was already heading for McCall when he joined her. Sasquatch and I gave chase but couldn’t catch them before McCall so we cut over a block early and caught them as they turned onto Lindenburger and stopped at Simpson. We held a pace line all the way down Simpson and made it to Winchester. I took us to Stowe but only Sasquatch and I stopped for coffee. We waited for Digger, Tax Man, Rocky, Closer and Socrates. Only Digger showed up so everyone else must have gone home a different way or we missed them. I rode back with Digger and Sasquatch and got home with 45 miles on the computer. It was a fast 45 with little time for pictures.