By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) I know Mondays normally start out slow and easy but this was a different Monday. We had a free hand to do a little climbing. In Fact people had asked for some climbing and Bautista had been calling our name for some time. So I got up had a bigger breakfast and got dressed for the ride. I headed to the parking lot with a light jacket and a positive attitude. Once again Digger was already getting coffee when I arrived. We were outside talking when riders started showing up. Sidewinder and Sasquatch were the first two followed by Bandit and his dad. Bulldozer pulled up on his TT bike just before Rocky. Kevin and Teresa joined us just before Quicksilver. MacGyver got there just before Gambler and Maverick. Mark returned after a long layoff. Hacker and Dave rounded things out to 17 riders as we got ready to leave. We headed out onto Latham before turning south on Lyon and heading past Acacia towards Johnston.

I may have been out front and pulling but that was more to set the pace and keep it down so the group would stay together. Add to that the fact that my legs were still a bit tight and I just felt better leading. It was my luck that no one wanted to push it much and Sidewinder was happy to stay back and let me lead everyone past Johnston and then to the light at Stetson. I was pretty impressed with the size of the group today considering it is still winter. But then it was a holiday so some may have had the day off so they could join us. We also had a strong A group and two or three strong young riders. The climb up Bautista should be interesting. I was still day dreaming as we turned on Thornton and Quicksilver pulled up on my right with Sasquatch on my left. By the time we crossed State Street Sidewinder started to move towards the front.

We moved east on Thornton and made our way past Buena Vista and to Santa Fe to head north back up to Stetson with Quicksilver leading us east towards Girard. She stayed out front till we got to the light and then I pulled in front and took us east towards Columbia. This group was going to stay together so everyone turned onto Columbia with me as we headed towards Thornton again.

We worked our way east on Thornton and quicksilver took us around the corner onto Crest. At this point we still had just one massive group following us with Dave, Hacker and Bulldozer moving towards the front. As we weaved our way right and left on Crest Sidewinder asked for a regroup so he could remove his leg warmers. We finally turned north on Lake and headed for the corner of Stetson and Lake for a regroup. Quicksilver had to leave early so I had Digger ride back with her and the rest of us headed east towards Fairview. I started the pull and turned it over to Hacker who got us to Fairview and headed south towards Bautista. As we got to Bautista the Big dogs laid back till we got to the big right turn and then the pace picked up. I stayed in the lead group hanging on for dear life. It looked like Hacker, Sasquatch, Dave and Sidewinder were looking to drop me. All of a sudden Hacker dropped off and I was left handing in the wind and out of the draft. Sasquatch and Sidewinder were pulling away and Dave dropped back to ride with Hacker. I settled into a pace and slowly closed on Sidewinder and Sasquatch just as Maverick past me heading for the Dam. Sidewinder pulled me back up to Maverick and I pulled around to try and pull Sidewinder up to Sasquatch. Sidewinder and Maverick fell off and I chased Sasquatch over the Dam and to the wash where I jumped by him and headed for the picket fence. I looked back only to see Sasquatch was mashing too big of a gear and falling off so I down shifted and when he pulled up to I had him select a different gear and pick up his spin a bit. Once he had his pace going I looked back to see Sidewinder and Maverick closing. I got Sasquatch back up to speed and as soon as we made a big left curve and lost sight of the young pups chasing us I told him to make a run for it and I placed myself between the chasers and Sasquatch. He held his pace all the way to the top and I managed to hold off a late attack by Sidewinder to got to the regroup point a few yards before getting caught.

We waited till everyone but Kevin and Teresa got to the top and started back towards Fairview. We may have started off slowly but soon Sidewinder and Bulldozer started to pull away. Sasquatch started after them and I started after him. I was still following him till we got to the off camber double right turn and finally we started to close on Sidewinder and Bulldozer. However just as we did the pace went crazy and Bandit passed us and the race was on. We took turns pulling as we past Sidewinder and Bulldozer. That held through several rotations till Bulldozer dropped the hammer and left us with two others following him, MacGyver and Gambler. We were heading back towards the river wash with Bulldozer and I can only assume Bandit fading in the distance. I say assume because I had no real clue as to who was in our group. I jumped ahead at the dam and Sasquatch blew up and MacGyver pulled by me with Dave on his wheel. We pulled up to Gambler and I took over again after the hard left. I got us to Fairview just as MacGyver took over and we headed north. We could see Bulldozer heading back towards us but I was too concerned with stocking to MacGyver’s wheel and followed him to Stetson and then the bridge before I took my turn and got us to Fairview and then Carl’s. Only a few of us stopped and had coffee before heading home on New Chicago to Lincoln.

It had turned into a beautiful day as we headed back towards Lake Street and worked our way over to Park. We had picked up Kevin and Teresa on Lincoln. MacGyver pulled them to Park and then to Devonshire after losing Hacker and Dave before we made our turn. The five of us rode back to Lyon where MacGyver left us then to the parking lot at Burger King where Kevin and Teresa left. I rode back to Dartmouth with Mark and headed for home on Stetson just to get in a few extra miles. It was a great way to start the week.