By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) We had a great Century ride Saturday and typically we do a easy recovery ride on the next Monday. That is just what I had planned, a short ride with less than 800 feet of climbing west. I got up, put on a new jersey and shorts and headed to Burger King. Digger and Dragon Slayer were already there when I pulled up and Highlander arrived a short time later. Tax Man and ME-109 got there about the same time as did Rooster and Quicksilver. I wasn’t too surprised to see Surgeon because he was the one requesting a shorter ride for Monday. As soon and everyone was ready we headed out of the parking lot and started south. We made our way to Acacia and then over to Kirby before heading south again towards the Railroad tracks.

I would have thought my legs would have been sore after this weekend but they weren’t and I found it easy to spin my way to Cypress and through the houses onto Johnston. We made the turn onto Sanderson and then again headed west on Stetson. I was still in my small ring and spinning easily as we got to the railroad tracks and the airport. ME-109 came by as did Rooster and we quickly came up on Warren and crossed over heading towards California. ME-109 took off on us and I got us to California heading south. We were well behind ME-109 as he turned onto Stowe.

Up to this point we had been good about keeping the pace down and spinning easy gears. As I took us around the corner heading west Dragon Slayer took over and pulled us towards the rise. He held us at a steady 20 MPH till Quicksilver blasted by in full spin and gapped us. Both Dragon Slayer and I picked up the pace and chased Quicksilver and caught her after about 200 yards. It took its toll on the rest of the group as we past her and I pulled by to take the two of us to the metal barn. This was by no means a fast run to Winchester but it blew up the group and a fragmentation grenade and we pulled into the Winchester Farms parking lot to join ME-109. It was obvious that some of our legs were warming up faster than others. When we were ready Dragon Slayer took us out onto Winchester and down to the dump road and west again.

At this point it was obvious that ME-109 was the strongest ride in the group and whenever he pulled our pace went up two or three miles an hour. Heading down Grand was no different and ME-109 was well ahead of us as we passed the Wild West show and headed for Leon. Tax Man and Digger fell off the back of the group but they weren’t that far behind as we turned towards Simpson on Leon.

I got us out onto Simpson and pulled us west towards Briggs. Tax Man joined us and caught the back of the group before we got to Briggs and was more or less right with us as we turned on Lindenburger to get to Heritage and head north. Dragon Slayer and dropped back and picked up Digger and got him to Menifee before heading to the AM/PM station for water. As soon as everyone filled their water bottles we were ready to go and I started us towards Mapes before Dragon Slayer took over and crested the hill for us as a group.

Here is where the recovery comes in because for a change we didn’t push it going down Menifee towards Central. Dragon Slayer and I took turns pulling but we never took it over 23 all the way to the stop sign were we more or less regrouped before heading the rest of the way to Central and then to Nuevo. We got over to Lakeview and regrouped once again.

We knew we were going to lose Dragon Slayer at 9th street so we let him pull us most of the way north on Lakeview till we got to that street and he headed for home. I took over pulling and got us to Ramona and headed us back east. Rooster took over for me as pulled us back towards Bridge. He kept the pace just a bit hot for some and soon we lost one or two off of the back. We soft pedaled to Warren where Highlander went back to pull Tax Man forward and followed us to Sanderson. Surgeon headed for Lyon and I started to follow with Rooster only to notice Quicksilver and some others were still on Sanderson. Rooster and I went back and joined Quicksilver and made the ride down to Devonshire when Tax Man and Highlander stopped to make a phone call.

We were in cruise mode as we headed back to Kirby and caught the light red. Once it changed we moved on to Gilmore and then back to the parking lot to get Quicksilver to her car. Surgeon joined us a moment later and Tax Man followed with Highlander a few minutes after that. I was surprised at our average speed for the day because I never felt like we had been pushing it. Quicksilver was still a bit sore in the legs but said she felt good about the ride anyway. I wanted to get home to a hot shower and lunch so I headed for home and got there with just over 40 miles on the computer. Not bad for a recovery ride.