By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) The best laid plans Wednesday had a predicted light wind in the morning getting brisker as the day went on. Try as I might I could not find a route that didn’t have us fighting it either going out of coming home. So I posted a ride to the back side of Goetz and home. I headed for the bike shop still feeling pretty good even after the workout on Monday. I got there to see Digger and Earth Dog waiting and Highlander pulling in to a parking spot. Abacus rode up and Huntress was even early. Anaconda arrived with a flat tire but Robert fixed it rather quickly so she could start with us and head north on Lyon. We sputtered along a bit at first till we settled into a bit of a pace line and headed into a wind that had managed to show up early.

At this point we were still hopeful that the wind would fall off a bit by the time we got to the Expressway and headed west. We were even pulling for a bit of a tail wind. I took us around the corner onto Ramona Boulevard and headed us towards Sanderson. The problem was the wind was not slacking off at all and the two women were getting blown all over the road. Anaconda and Huntress turned back at Sanderson and headed south while the rest of us headed for Warren and west. We did got some tail wind heading west but I had to stop to take a call before we started for warren and Digger took advantage of the stop to get a head start. Once on the road we gave chase and Highlander took us past Warren and the first driveway before Abacus took the lead and ramped us up as we headed for Bridge. I worked up to the second spot and waited for a chance to get in front and chase Digger as well. Once I got up front I hit it pretty hard and we closed on Digger and finally caught him. Abacus got back in front again and I followed most of the way to Hansen before pulling away and closing in on the light and a regroup at Nuevo Market. As we talked at Nuevo Market the wind picked up quite a bit and it was obvious it wasn’t turning towards the south as we had wanted. It was almost blowing due west and wouldn’t be much help if we moved over to Lakeview and headed for Nuevo. Some of us decided to cut the ride short and head south on Hansen to Nuevo to see if we wanted to do Goetz anyway.

I led us most of the way up to the stop sign where Abacus took the lead and pulled onto Nuevo first. As we turned west towards Lakeview the wind was at our back and at times we hit 30+ mph. We turned at the first street past Lakeview and waited for everyone to regroup. Earth Dog and Abacus decided to give Goetz a try while Digger, Highlander and I headed for Central and west to Menifee. Highlander led us to the Nursery and I took us to Mapes where we waited for Digger. He followed Highlander and I to Briggs and caught us as we waited for the light on Florida. We had a pretty easy time getting down to the dump road and headed east into the teeth of the wind. I pulled almost all the way to Leon before I noticed Highlander looking back to make sure Digger was in sight of us before we hit the area of the Flag Sprint. Highlander and I headed for Winchester and I pulled us to Winchester Farms for our food break. We didn’t stay long before we decided to head back to the bike shop. I had a banana and something to drink before we headed back onto Stowe and made a run at California into what seemed like a fading wind.

By the time we got to California it was clear there would be no PRs set because that fading wind was not fading at all. The ride north to Stetson was little more than a cruise and we took turns pulling back to Warren and the Airport. Once we made it to Cawston we were glad the ride was almost over. We worked our way over to Sanderson and then up to Lowes and the Acacia before turning back to Kirby and then made our way to the bike shop before heading home. It was a pretty good ride all in all but it was like they say, riding into the wind is like fighting a Gorilla, you cannot quit when you are tired, you have to wait till he quits.