By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Today I was planning on trying the longest ride I have taken since last October before I had my bypass surgery. So far 35 miles has been my limit before I ran out of energy and I was afraid I wouldn’t be ready for a 50 mile effort at the TDPS. So I was eager but also nervous about today’s ride. I got to Burger King in time to see Digger and Dragon Slayer and then talked till Highlander and Minotaur arrived. Just before 9am Huntress arrived and we were ready to head out to Latham and head north on Lyon. My plan was to stay in cruise mode and save as much energy as I could to make sure I could finish 40 plus miles. I might try to push a little but nothing to run my energy dry. Pacing myself is exactly what I did as we followed Digger down to Esplanade and caught the light red. I didn’t even try to get in front for a picture till after we past 7th street and hit a bit of a downhill so I could build up some speed.

It was a lot colder than it had been on Monday and I didn’t know at the time that Huntress was struggling with the cold. I thought she was dressed as warm as the rest of us but later I learned that wasn’t the case. Highlander and Dragon Slayer took us to Ramona Boulevard and headed us west towards Sanderson. We made our way to the Expressway and waited for the light to change before heading west again towards Warren. Dragon Slayer finally took the lead and set us on a simple cruise of about 18 mph and got us past Bridge and a bit farther along before Highlander took over. The group got to Hansen and stopped at the little store to take a break.

It was here we learned that Huntress was freezing and was going to break off and head for home. She had to go into the store to warm up and insisted that we go on while she headed for home. Dragon Slayer offered to stop by his house to get some warmer base layers but the damage was done and she decided to leave us. As soon as we were sure she was warming up and her bike was inside of the store we headed for the rollers with Minotaur and Dragon Slayer took the lead. As we hit the roller I did a reasonable job of spinning up the first one and took my time setting myself up for the second one. It felt pretty good even if I knew it wasn’t even close to how I took those rollers last year. Still I crested the last roller with Highlander and headed for Rider and the turn towards Evans. We then moved down Evans and headed for Orange before cutting over to Nuevo and making our way to Menifee for the next run south.

I was starting to tire a bit or the beta blockers were kicking in so I decided to back it off a bit and rode with Digger as the other three pulled away from us as we headed towards the nursery and down to Mapes so we could cut back over to Briggs and avoid some of the traffic on Menifee. One thing that was easy to notice was that Mapes is one of the more dog populated streets we ride on. It seemed like even house had a pack of four or five dogs barking at us as we rode by. Finally we made it to Briggs and headed south towards Florida.

I like the long downhill off of Mapes on Briggs and it gave my legs a chance to rest as we made our way to the elementary school. Minotaur was well out in front of us and in fact had crossed at the light well before we got there. We made it to the light and regrouped on the other side before heading south once more to get to the Dump road and head east.

Once again Minotaur pulled us towards the dump road and once there got us started towards Leon. I had to hang on as we rolled up on the rise before the D V V flag sprint and I knew I was toast if a sprint started. Sure enough Minotaur took off and Dragon Slayer took off as well. There was no chance that I was going to catch them but at least I was able to get up and gave chase. After the flag I backed off and Highlander hooked up on their wheel as they headed for Winchester. Dragon Slayer came back to get me and pulled me to Winchester and then north to Winchester Farms for coffee. After coffee we headed east on Stowe and I rode with Digger as the other three pulled away and we didn’t catch them till we found them waiting for us at Warren. We then worked our way through the Industrial tract and back to Sanderson. I decided to head for home and Digger rode with me as we moved east on Johnston and north on Palm. Digger left me at my street and I got home with just short of 42 miles on the Garmin. My longest ride to date this year.