By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) It was another Monday and another chance to test myself to see how much I have or haven’t improved since I got back on the bike. I poster a flat fast ride heading to Bridge and ending at Cranston Station and headed for the Bike Shop expecting a good day. Digger was waiting as usual and Earth Dog arrived a bit early. Tax man arrived and for a long time we looked like we would be the only riders. Finally Papillion rode up followed by Anaconda and Minotaur and we had a good little group of seven. By 9 am we were out onto Lyon and headed north. We crossed Florida and I managed to pull almost to Fruitvale before Digger took over and pulled us towards Esplanade.

I was rather surprised that Digger wanted to pull even after Esplanade and headed for Seventh. He didn’t give up the lead after Seventh or even Cottonwood and ended up taking us all the way to Ramona Boulevard and west towards Sanderson. Once again to my surprise he kept the lead all the way to Sanderson and then to the light at the Expressway. Once the light changed he finally gave up the lead and let me pull us to Warren. Minotaur took over after Warren but Earth Dog wanted to take off and pulled away from us as we got to the first driveway. Slowly Minotaur closed on Earth Dog with the rest of us in tow. We managed to catch him just as we got to Bridge Street and pulled around the corner and headed north to get to Gilman. We stopped briefly to regroup before heading towards the Bird Sanctuary and the long straight heading to Gilman and another regroup.

I finally took the lead again and tried to keep our pace up as we rolled around the bid right curve and headed straight at Gilman. Anaconda came by and pulled for a while till we started the slight climb before the corner. Once everyone made it to the corner we headed east towards Sanderson again with Earth Dog well in the lead and Minotaur once again had to pull the rest of us to him. Once Minotaur gave up the lead I stayed in third place till the last little climb before the downhill leading to Sanderson and jumped around Earth Dog and Anaconda to make a run to the underpass. Minotaur tried to set up a pace line and we did pretty well till we got to the little kicker about halfway to Soboba. We took the rest of the way to Soboba before we were all back together and ready to head east towards the Golf Course.

Once again Earth Dog started out first and Minotaur once again pulled the rest of us up to him. This time however Digger had a big head start and it took us to the last roller to catch him. Minotaur and I ended up with the last pull after the driving range and pulled the last hill together. After the climb I went back to get Tax Man and we agreed to all meet at the Fire station on Fairview. Tax Man and I caught the light at Main and the Expressway and ended up chasing Earth Dog all the way to Cedar and headed towards the Fire Station. We didn’t have to wait long before Digger showed up and we had to head for Florida and make the turn east towards Cranston.

Minotaur got out front and started a strong pull to the trees and the little climb to Cranston. I was doing well to hang onto his back wheel with Papillion, Tax Man and Earth Dog right behind me. Minotaur kept the pace up and soon Tax Man and Earth Dog fell off. I held on till we almost made it out of the trees and felt real good till I hit the wall with my Beta Blockers and had to fall back and watch Papillion and Minotaur pull away. Still I got to Cranston and we waited till everyone was there before we turned back to start to Carl’s for coffee. Just as we started back down the hill Digger got to Cranston and had to turn around and follow us. Papillion and Minotaur were planning on riding Bautista rather than stopping for coffee so I knew we would lose them by Fairview. Still they assisted with the pull back to Fairview before leaving us.

After the group split up at Fairview I led us down to Ramona before taking us to Carl’s and coffee. We spent a few minutes talking before deciding to head back out onto New Chicago and start to Lincoln to get home. We turned at Park and headed to the jog over to Devonshire were Digger left us and headed for home. The rest of us chased Earth Dog all the way back to the bike shop. It only took a few minutes for everyone to load up their cars and leave for home. Once they were gone I rode home myself and had a good lunch and hot shower.