By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) The week was finally coming to an end and I only needed 37 miles to get my normal 120 for the week. I had a short ride planned going east and the weather wizards predicted winds blowing from the north, northeast early and moving to East, north east by the time we were coming home. So I changed the ride so we would have a quartering wind to our right rear on Ramona and a long run south with the wind to our back and a shorter rund east into the wind coming home. I got out the Klein and headed for the parking lot to see who we would have for the ride. Digger was there sporting new tires and looking ready for whatever was thrown at him. Sasquatch and Minotaur arrived followed by Tax Man and Ray1. The last to arrive was Quicksilver and once she was ready we headed out onto Latham to head north towards the expressway.

I had high hopes for the wind because it did seem as if it was coming out of the north and earlier Sasquatch had come to the parking lot wait a bit of a tailwind out of the east. Thinking that I only had to battle the wind in my face till I got to the expressway I gladly pulled the group north on Lyon to the light at Esplanade and then on to Cottonwood. Traffic was light and it was a warm wind so I felt comfortable as we got ready to turn off of Lyon and onto Ramona Boulevard.

My faith in the weather men was dulled a bit as we headed west because I felt very little of the predicted wind shift from the east that we had been looking for. Still a side wind might be easier to deal with and we still had the promise of a tail wind once we made a turn south in Nuevo. We turned onto Sanderson and stopped at the light on the Expressway and prepared for the long run west. I started us out at a reasonable pace I thought only to discover I only had Quicksilver, Sasquatch and Minotaur with me at Warren. We soft pedaled but still we didn’t get the group back together till Bridge. The problem seemed to be the promised wind coming from the North East turned out to be from the North West so we had it almost in our face. We continued on as a group from Bridge Street only to drop Tax Man and Ray1. We stopped at Lakeview and waited for them only to learn that Tax Man had a broken shift cable. We couldn’t fix it so he would have to do the rest of the ride in 34 by 11. At least there were no climbs left and we would have the wind at our back now that we were headed south. We started south on Lakeview and I pulled us with the help of Sasquatch all the way to Nuevo.

Sasquatch and Minotaur pulled away from us as we got to Central and continued pulling away as we turned onto Menifee. I tried to pull Quicksilver to see if we could close on them but she couldn’t hold the draft and they we really moving one I got past the nursery and headed for Mapes. I never caught them and we stopped at the AM/PM for a regroup. We pulled out of the gas station and headed for McCall before turning onto Heritage. It was still a pretty nice run and we played tag a bit going to Lindenburger and catching the light. Minotaur started the pull east and we thought we would have a bit of a tail wind because we could see the flags were blowing from the North West at the light. Once we past Briggs the wind turned on us and by Leon it was coming more out of the east than the north. Minotaur gave up the lead and I pulled briefly before Sasquatch roared by at Leon. I followed close in his draft till we came out of the first stand of trees. I came back around and pulled Minotaur with me heading for the last stand of trees and Winchester. Sasquatch tried to jump on the last section in a sprint but the wind stood him up and he was simply in the wrong gear to keep me from pulling through his draft and up to the light. We regrouped on Winchester before Quicksilver started to pull us up to Stowe. Sasquatch pulled by her in front of Chris’s but the rest of us followed her to Winchester farms and a short break. As soon as we had something to drink we were back on Stowe and headed east into more head wind.

I was a bit surprised at the energy some of the riders had left as we made our way towards California Street. It wasn’t long before Minotaur rolled to the front and picked up the pace. Sasquatch couldn’t let that move go unchallenged and I didn’t want to give up such a good draft as he pulled by me. I chased him still the wind picked up and I started by. It was easier for me to get under the wind and so I pulled away and had to sit up till they caught me. The same thing happened on California but this time we dropped Minotaur as we turned onto Stetson. We finally had to stop on Warren to make sure we had everyone and then made our way to Sanderson. Sasquatch did a lot of the work getting us to Sanderson and waiting at the light next to a big box truck. The truck was more than Sasquatch could resist and he tried to draft it to Johnston. He got the light red and by the time I got there it just turned green. I caught him flat footed and got a big enough lead that he couldn’t draft me to Lowes.

We worked our way around Lowes and back to Acacia before Ray1 went home. Sasquatch and Minotaur made a slow run to Gilmore and turned back to the parking lot and the cars. We joined them a few moments later before saying my goodbyes and heading for our homes. I didn’t realize how tired riding in that much head wind for so long and ended up taking a nap after lunch.