By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) I normally look forward to Mondays because I am as rested as I am going to get with two days off. I decided to take advantage of the rested legs and put out a longer ride to Murrieta and back. The weather wizards said the wind would hit us from the south west so we would have to ride against it all the way to Whitewood. The advantage was that once we got to Whitewood it would be downhill to Murrieta Hot Springs and it should be a quartering wind to Winchester. But first we had to get there. So once Digger, Earth Dog, ME-109, Bruin and I were ready we headed down Lyon to Acacia. I ended up following Digger on Acacia to Kirby and was surprised when he started to lead on Kirby heading for Cypress.

Digger must have been feeling his oats because he stayed out front all the way through the housing tract and pulled us to Johnston and the light at Sanderson. It was fine with me if someone else wanted to pull because I simply wanted to finish the ride against the wind. I was concerned when I noticed that ME-109 wasn’t with us but I discovered he had given us a head start so he could chase us down. He didn’t have any other A riders so he needed something to challenge him. Digger pulled us all the way to Warren and started us towards California when ME-109 caught up and rolled by. We watched him pull away to California and Digger pulled the rest of us after him. Digger was still leading as we turned towards Stowe and he was still leading as we headed west towards Winchester Farms. I decided to give him a break and pulled into the lead after the last house and headed towards the metal barn. I pulled us to Winchester Farms and we joined ME-109 for a short regroup.

Me-109 left us after we headed south on Winchester and made the turn onto the dump road to head west towards Leon. Bruin and I pulled away from Digger and Earth Dog at the Wild West Arena and turned on Leon where we soft pedaled till they caught us. I then pulled us around the corner onto Simpson and all the way to Briggs where Bruin took over and ran up to Menifee for the turn south towards the Gas ststion on Menifee and Domenigoni. When we got back on our way Digger and Earth Dog took us south towards Holland and the Revive climb. I was trailing the other three as we crossed Holland and started selecting my gears before the climb started up. Once the rest of the group started to bog down I hit the hill pretty hard and got to the stop sign first and slowed down to let the last rider catch up with me before heading to Garbani and the run to Scott so we could ride down to Keller. Bruin was waiting just past the stop light on Scott where the rest of us caught a red. Once the light changed we headed for Keller looking forward to the drop down Whitewood.

Bruin and I made the turn on Keller and waited for Digger and Earth Dog before heading towards the Hospital and the turn on Baxter. We dropped down to Whitewood and headed south once more looking forwards to the last light at Clinton Keith before the long downhill to Murrieta Hot Springs. I pushed it on the downhill but it was pretty much wasted matches because the wind would let any real speed be built up. 24 to 26 was about as fast as I could go and I have seen 32 on the run before. Then we caught the light red at Los Alamos, something that happens almost every time I do this ride, and had to wait for another green. We finally got to Murrieta and headed east back towards Winchester. I did the lion’s share of the pulling to Margarita Parkway before Bruin pulled up to join me.

I decided to save my energy on the climb north on Winchester at Murrieta Hot Springs and started thinking about the break we would take at the gas station on Benton. Earth Dog and Bruin were well out front when Digger crested the hill and I had to chase Earth Dog all the way to the French Valley airport. My legs were feeling pretty good but my energy stores were pretty low so I knew the Benton stop would be a food stop. I wasn’t about to suffer another blood sugar drop like I did a few weeks ago so I found a good gear and took off for Benton and the gas station. We were in luck and the wind was at our back as we headed north on Winchester and worked our way back to Scott. Digger started out well but faded before Scott and we stopped to give him a head start at the rise leading to Garbani and Holland. We caught him right after the rise and I fell back to pull him as we rolled up on Holland. He fell off of my wheel and I continued on to Domanigoni where Earth Dog and Bruin were waiting. The wind was strange all the way back to the dry wash and straightened out a bit between Warren and Sanderson. We regrouped after the turn onto Sanderson and headed back to Acacia and then back to the bike shop before heading for home. I finished the ride but I also discovered I am a very long way from being recovered. In fact I am not sure recovery will ever be complete.