By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Just to be clear I normally look forward to Monday rides. Monday is when my legs have had the most rest and when I seem to have the most stamina. By Wednesday I am feeling a bit tired and by Friday I am just hanging on. So I wanted a good ride today and the weather looked like it might cooperate except for the wind. It was supposed to be a bit windy and I had to try to plan a ride that would take at least some advantage of the predicted wind. It is not an easy task to plot a ride based on predictions of our weather wizards but I gave it a shot and posted a ride with as much east and north runs as I could get. I headed to the bike shop and waited to see how things turned out. Digger was there as was Earth Dog when I pulled up and for a while I thought we were the only ones riding. I got a text from Ben, (Hermes) and while we waited Abacus rode up. Not a big group but considering the wind and cold but it was more than I expected. Right about 9am we headed out of the parking lot and onto Lyon right into the wind coming out of the south. I thought we would get a side wind on Acacia but it was a bit more like a south west wind so it was still a bit in our face. I got us to Kirby and turned south again and it was even harder than before. We ducked down as best as we could and headed for Cypress to go west and over to Johnston. I was up front with Hermes as we got to Johnston and Sanderson and we caught the light till Earth Dog, Abacus and Digger caught up. We headed towards Industrial and the beginning of the next west stretch.

Once we got out onto Cawston I led the way to Stetson and the long slug towards Warren started. I was riding the Klein so I had the aero bars and Hermes was on the TT bike so we were able to get flat and dig into the wind and slowly pull away on Stetson and then pulled away some more on California. By the time we got to Stowe we only had Abacus within striking distance and he finally fell off as we headed for Winchester and a regroup. Hermes ended up pulling much of the way to Winchester farms and we stopped just before Abacus got there and waited for Digger and Earth Dog. Digger was fighting the wind and it looked like it was winning.

Our hope at this point was that after fighting the wind south on Winchester we would at least have a tail wind heading back east. At least that was the plan. Once again Hermes did most of the work as I drafted him to Domenigoni and we waited to gather every one to catch up and start east. I got a good jump because at least the wind was slightly from the west even if it was mostly from the south. Soon I looked back to see Hermes closing on me and Earth Dog and Abacus were fighting the cross wind a lot more than we were. Hermes caught me and we rode together all the way to Searl where we waited for the rest of the group. Abacus wasn’t that far behind and finally Digger arrived and told us that Earth Dog had gone home because of leg cramps. So Digger started towards State Street and we chased him till we got to the corner and headed north for the first time today. The run north on State was almost like flying and with very little effort Hermes and I headed for Chambers and decided to push the State Street mile or at least the last half of it. We turned onto Chambers and were soon joined by Abacus and saw Digger coming around the corner just before we turned onto Buena Vista. He was even closer by the time we turned onto Santa Fe and headed once more east on Stetson.

We changed plans a bit and decided not to go to Cranston Station but to go to Wilson Mesa and attack the run back north on Fairview. Digger went straight on Stetson when we turned onto Columbia and we worked our way through the houses on Crest to come back to Lake and Stetson. We came out behind Digger and had to chase him all the way to Fairview. We turned towards Wilson Mesa and he turned towards Florida and Carl’s. We did the Wilson Mesa loop and headed back north towards Stetson and then Florida. I pulled hard to Stetson and Hermes flew past me and headed for Mayberry at about 35mph. I kept chugging till I got to Florida and Hermes and I headed for Carl’s to meet the waiting Digger. Abacus showed up a few seconds later after fighting with a bee on Fairview. After coffee and conversation we headed back to Lincoln and west towards Park. Digger left us at the jog to Devonshire and the three remaining riders made our way back to the bike shop before heading home. It was a fight with the wind but one that was worth it.