By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) The week was starting and it cooled down some from Friday. I had pushed the group a bit last week so I intended to back off this week and start with a flatter ride of less than 40 miles. I picked Bridge to Soboba and planned on stopping at the new coffee shop located in the old Hemet Train station. I had a good breakfast and headed for coffee with Digger. To my surprise Earth Dog was there first, with his new bike, Carbon Fiber, Dura Ace, disk brakes and all. A good looking custom made to specification machine that he was taking out for its first group ride. Digger pulled up as I was getting coffee and to my surprise Polaris rode up as well. She had the week off from school. At first I thought it was going to be just the four of us but Shooter and Siren drove up and unloaded their bikes just before 9am. Not a big group but for a Monday as busy as this one was I wasn’t surprised. We rode out onto Latham and made the turn north onto Lyon to start our ride to the Expressway.

Today’s ride was more of a relaxing effort to get our legs warmed up for the rest of the week. With that in mind we cruised north on Lyon and made our way to Ramona Boulevard. I didn’t intend on leading the group all the way to Ramona but I did and turned the lead over to Siren as she sprinted by when we made the left towards Sanderson. Shooter pulled by and we reeled her in just before Sanderson and headed over to the Expressway to wait for the light. Once the light turned green Shooter started us west on the Expressway heading for Warren. Shooter slowly ramped it up with Siren in tow till the three of us had separated from the other three. He managed to hold the pace at 24 as we climbed the slight ramp at Warren and I had to come around siren to stay on his wheel. But we slacked the pace and picked siren back up before making it to Bridge and heading for Gilman. We all made it to Gilman where Bulldozer and Minotaur stopped by in their car talk with us while they headed home from Mountain Biking. We decided to stay on Gilman all the way to Soboba before a regroup.

The run east on Soboba spread us out into three groups as we made it over the first roller. By the second roller Shooter had taken Siren and Earth Dog off on a run past the golf course. I fell back and pulled Polaris and Digger in the same direction. We found Shooter’s group waiting at Ramona and past them at the light to head east again. We were joined by and passed well before we got to Hemet Road.

We decided to ride to Lincoln with Siren and Earth Dog leading. We had to slowly work our way up to them when they missed the turn at Lincoln and headed back west to start our trip back west. I had to race up to the front to make sure everyone knew we were stopping at the Train depot and then I fell back and once again watched Siren lead the group towards Park.

We headed to Devonshire and Digger left us to hear to Menlo and home. The rest of us rode to Santa Fe and then back west towards State Street. Siren slacked off allowing me to get us to State and then south to the driveway at the Train Station. It was under new management and had a different menu plus a good looking pastry section. But I will still caution anyone looking for quick drink orders avoid getting iced coffee blended. The still takes a long time. We had coffee, sandwiches and fruit drinks before heading back over to Latham and west to Burger king. I didn’t stay long at the parked cars before heading home to try and get a multitude on tasked done before the Monday night Bautista ride.