By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) After a hard week physically I was both glad and also a bit tentative even after a good ride on Wednesday. I wasn’t sure about climbing but a longer ride seemed in order and so I posted 44 mag. I got up and had breakfast before getting dressed and heading for the parking lot to meet Digger and anyone else that wanted to ride. I just wouldn’t be able to lead so I had a day of drafting in front of me. As I expected Digger was already there when I rode up as was Dragon Slayer. I saw Minotaur ride up as well. We talked for a while till Highlander arrived followed by Hacker and Bugler. Gambler arrived with Ferret and ME-109. We were also joined by Tax Man, Huntress, Barracuda and Quicksilver. A new rider, Robert, a friend of Bulldozer, joined us as well. It was not a bad group for a hot and humid Friday. We headed south towards Acacia just after 8am.

As soon as we were on Acacia and headed for Kirby I fell in behind Digger and Tax Man and they led us to the light at Kirby. All in all I felt pretty strong and didn’t notice any discomfort as we rode but then my heart rate was just above 95 beats a minute which isn’t far from my walking rate. I fell into an easy pace behind the three leaders as they crossed the railroad tracks and turned onto Cypress to head for Johnston.

As we waited at the light on Sanderson and got ready to head south again I indicated to Dragon Slayer that I wouldn’t be in front much today as I continued to test my conditioning. As we passed Wally World the pace started to pick up and the quicker riders moved to the front. I locked in on the back four or five riders and tried to keep my eye on the new rider. Tax Man pulled in front of me as we got to Domenigoni and headed west. It was here that the group split into three pieces and headed for Warren. Tax Man pulled three of us past Warren and over the dry wash. Robert the new rider started to suffer from not being on a saddle for quite a while so I fell in behind him as Barracuda pulled around us and headed for Winchester. Tax Man was more than happy to pull Robert and I to Winchester where Robert decided to abandon the ride and said he would have to try again another day. I followed Tax Man to the bottom of the saddle and then pulled him to the top before giving the lead back to him as we headed towards the gas station on Menifee. We picked up another two riders at the gas station with bandit and Shooter. They joined us as we pulled back out onto Menifee and headed north towards Florida and the ride to Nuevo.

The group spread out again as we past first Florida and then Mapes. Quicksilver, Highlander and Tax Man had decided to leave us at Nuevo and the Big dogs were pulling away from us as we crested the rise after Mapes. Dragon Slayer and Hacker came back to help pull our smaller group to Nuevo and head west as Highlander and Tax Man followed Quicksilver towards Lakeview and home. We stayed together as the trailing group as we headed towards Evans. We discovered there was a detour on Evans so we had to work our way back to Dunlap and then back around to Evans. Somewhere during our detour we lost Digger as we headed for Ramona and the turn East. We could see digger as we rode by the entrance to Lake Perris and just as we started to wonder where he might be Dragon Slayer cut a back tire. As the tire was being changed Digger turned off of Evans onto Rider and almost caught us before we made the little climb after Rider. We were going to make a stop at Dragon Slayer’s house to get water and a replacement tire So Digger got by us and headed for Sanderson. We came out onto Ramona Expressway and started the long pull home.

Dragon Slayer and Hacker did most of the work as we headed back towards Bridge and I will freely admit it was nice sitting in a draft so much of the day. It was about this time I noticed Bugler had fallen out of the draft and was having to make the run all by himself. We backed it down a bit only to discover he was also running low on matches and had been stretched pretty far on today’s ride. We never caught Digger but we did find Minotaur waiting for us when we got to Sanderson. He then joined us as we turned towards Lyon so we could get back to Burger King.

Once we turned on Lyon I fell back to keep Bugler company and Dragon Slayer led Huntress, Minotaur, Hacker and Barracuda towards Seventh Street. Barracuda came back to ride with us and as we got to Menlo I found Digger sitting on the corner getting ready to head for home. He just wanted to let me know he made it. I rode with Barracuda and Bugler till we got to Burger King and found Dragon Slayer, Hacker and Huntress loading up to head for home themselves. Minotaur, Bugler, Barracuda and I rode over to the LBS before heading for home ourselves. I had a big lunch before taking the dog for a walk and then taking a hot shower. I was a good day.