By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) We managed to get rained out on the Monday ride so I was looking forward to a bit longer ride on Wednesday. I wanted to push myself a bit and see if I could take another step forward in my quest to get back in cycling shape. So it was a simple around Lake Perris route I posted and was ready for as I rode to the Bike shop to start the ride. I was pleasantly surprised once the riders started to arrive to see we would have a pretty reasonable group for at least the first part of the ride. Digger, Cutter and Earth Dog were pretty early. Minotaur, Tax Man and Dragon Slayer were early as well. Bulldozer, Highlander and Anaconda were the last to arrive and we got ready to leave right at 9am. We managed to get out onto Lyon and headed north only to catch the light red on Florida. After the light turned green we were on our way and I had a chance to start the pull north towards Esplanade. We had crossed over Devonshire and then Menlo as a group and I was still out front setting the pace. Perhaps a bit sedately for some but I was out front none the less.

Somewhere between Esplanade and Ramona Minotaur got a call from the Island of Crete indicating that Minotaur junior was having trouble with invading Greeks, or illness one of the two and he had to leave to rectify the problem. I wasn’t aware of the problem and thought he was still in the group as we moved west on Ramona Boulevard all the way to Sanderson and the Expressway. Once we made the turn west and started towards Warren I was ready for someone else to take the lead. I got halfway to Warren before Dragon Slayer, Bulldozer and Anaconda rolled by me. I fell in on their wheel and followed them to Warren with Highlander right behind me. I looked back to see we had dropped everyone else so I pulled over and waited for Tax Man. The two of us rode together to Bridge before deciding to pull over and wait for Cutter, Digger and Earth Dog. Tax Man and I pulled the group the rest of the way to Hansen to join the lead group and I discovered Minotaur had left us.

It was decision time as we got ready to do the rest of the ride. Digger and Tax Man had decided to return east back to Bridge while the rest of us headed west towards the rollers and over to Evans. Bulldozer and Dragon Slayer were leading us towards the Burnasconi climb and setting a reasonable pace when I decided to back it down and pull the B group over both of the hills. About halfway to Burnasconi Cutter decided to go for a PR and left us. He was about halfway between the led two riders and those of us trailing. Highlander pulled by me after the first climb and pulled all the way to the second before giving up the lead. The problem was after Earth Dog got up front Highlander lost his spin and fell off the back of the group. I went back to get him and ended up dragging him back up to anaconda and Earth Dog just before the motocross park. Highlander pulled by them to the entrance to Lake Perris and I got back in front and pulled us to Evans and started us north towards Iris. We had to stop before getting there because Earth Dog had a flat and we waited for him to fix it before getting back on the road.

Once we were headed east on Iris we realized we were not going to meet up with the three riders we thought were ahead of us. WE worked together till we got to the north entrance to Lake Perris where Earth Dog took off on us. Anaconda and I got caught at a light and had to chase Highlander almost all the way to Alessandro where Earth Dog was waiting for us. As most of our riders know Alessandro is not the best road so we felt a bit like the riders on the Paris Roubaix race riding over the cobbles. We rode all the way to Gilman and stopped for a moment to plan the run all the way to Sanderson. I decided this would be a good time to see if I had the stamina to pull all the way and so I led out as we started east. I pulled everyone till we got halfway to Bridge and the slight climb at the clump of trees when at the ride Earth Dog got out of the saddle and pulled around me. I first I was a bit disappointed thinking I was too for him and that he was going to take over the pull. But I shouldn’t have worried because he just pulled by and kept on going. We ended up chasing all the way to Sanderson without ever catching him. We then turned south towards the Expressway and ended up finding Dragon Slayer waiting at the intersection. Just before we headed for Ramona Boulevard to get to Lyon Cutter joined us and we found out he had missed a turn and had chased us all by himself all the way back to Sanderson and the Expressway.

We made the turn onto Ramona Boulevard and headed for Lyon. By now I was starting to run down a bit but I still felt strong enough to push it a bit on the way home. We made the turn south and Dragon Slayer took off with Earth Dog on his wheel heading for Cottonwood. I stayed with Highlander and Anaconda and we lost sight of them about Esplanade. It didn’t matter because we kept a steady pace back to Florida and then to the Bike Shop where we parted our ways and headed for home. It was the longest pull I had done since last October.