By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) It is still cold and it is only the second day of a new year but I already had three requests for today’s ride. One wanted a rather flat ride, one wanted a west ride and one wanted about 44 miles. I posted just such a ride and was ready for it when I rode over to the parking lot to meet Digger. By 9am we had a pretty good sized group, well two groups with an A and a B group. Bulldozer, Bloodhound, Bandit and MacGuyver would make up the A group while Digger, Huntress, Closer, Sasquatch, Sidewinder, Hacker, Highlander and Doug made up the B group. It wouldn’t be that divided for the whole ride but it would end up that way. Bandit forgot his shoes so he left and promised to meet us on the way while the rest of us headed for Acacia and the beginning of the ride.

We were still a bit slow out of the blocks and I had already decided I didn’t want to chase Bloodhound at all today. I would leave that to Bulldozer and his group and maybe the young riders. Bloodhound had turned onto Kirby before the rest of us and headed to Cypress and then west well before the rest of us. Then as we turned onto Cypress he had to ride back and rejoin the group till we got to Johnston and Sanderson and had to wait for the light to turn green. We finally headed south on Sanderson and once again Bloodhound jumped out front and the rest of us followed.

As we got close to Mustang it looked like Bloodhound would catch the light red and I was hooked onto Bulldozer’s back wheel. I was simply going to cruise to Domenigoni but when the light turned green it looked like Bloodhound was going to beat my time from Thursday on his way to Domenigoni. Adrenalin must have short circuited my brain because I took off just hoping to stay on Bloodhounds wheel and maybe snipe him at the end to hold onto to my place on the 2015 Strava segment. I did get to Domenigoni even without drafting Bloodhound. I settled into an easy pace of about 20 mph until Bulldozer rolled by with a string of riders following him. We simply followed them all the way to the saddle for a regroup.

We finally dropped off of the saddle and headed all the way to Menifee before heading north. Bloodhound took off at Lindenburger but Bandit ran him down and then Sidewinder chased them to the corner. Sasquatch and Hacker followed them north and I caught them about 100 yards after the corner. I then had to follow Sidewinder to Simpson and then down the hill to McCall where Bulldozer, Bandit and Bloodhound were waiting. We then continued on to the AM/PM for another regroup and the A group decided to continue on to Nuevo. The B group followed a few minutes later and crested the rise on Menifee after Mapes.

After we started down towards Central Sidewinder made a break for it. He got a pretty good lead before I was able to pull the group back up to him at the first stop sign. He took off again and headed for Central with Hacker and Sasquatch with him. They paused at the stop sign on Central and I managed t run them down again and rounded the corner onto Nuevo. We paused again and regrouped after the stop light and then headed to Evens. The goal was to get to Rider and cut over to Ramona.

Sidewinder was pulling strong as we headed north and soon we were coming up on Rider and turned east for the first time to get ready to head home. Sidewinder and Sasquatch did most of the pulling as we headed for Ramona. I had already been smoked by Sidewinder and Sasquatch today and the hill after we turned onto Ramona would simply give them one more chance. I was in a bad spot with Sasquatch leading and Sidewinder right behind him. Right behind me was Hacker and he had attacked me on a saddle climb before. Some good things fell in place for me as soon as we rounded the corner. Sidewinder was in the small ring and spinning and Sasquatch was mashing at the bottom of the hill. Hacker made a late charge and I was in the perfect gear. I got up and over the hill well ahead of all of them and headed for Bernasconi where they finally caught me and we rode together to the Valero for one last regroup.

We had Digger play rabbit when we got ready to leave and let him get out onto Ramona before we left the parking lot. We then moved to Hansen and the light at Ramona. I started the pull and got us about a mile down the road before giving the lead to Highlander. Hacker was the next one to take the lead and he pulled us all the way past Bridge where we finally caught Digger. Hacker then pulled us to Sanderson where we turned south and ran into a bit of a head wind. We managed to more or less stay together after Cottonwood all the way to Devonshire and getting back to Gilmore and the parking lot. After a brief visit I headed for home and rode with Hacker to Palm before I turned and got home with 48 miles on the computer. It took a pretty hot showed to thaw me out but it was still a great ride with great people.