By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Here we were on another Wednesday and another test of my recovering health. I had a good day Monday and that often means a struggle with my legs on Wednesday so I had posted a rather flat ride and decided to bring out the Peugeot and see if I could keep up a good spin and stay with the group for a day. The plan was to head out to Lindenburger and come back over the saddle to get to State Street and the east end of town. SO I had a light breakfast and headed to the bike shop. I arrived to meet Digger waiting inside the shop and thinking we might be the only riders today. I had discovered that they were still working on the east bound side of Domenigoni and the bike lane was closed. So I re-routed the ride to reverse Nuevo and waited for others to join us. Soon Highlander and Tax Man arrived and seeing that I was riding a single speed Highlander had little choice but to commit to join us for the whole ride. We left the parking lot at 8am and started working our way south and west. I led us to Kirby and then up to Cypress with Highlander by my side. We talked as we made our way to Johnston. We sat at the light on Sanderson till it turned green and I took us west towards Cawston.

Once back out onto Stetson I stayed in front and took us to us to Warren cruising just short of our normal speed. Once we rolled by Warren Tax Man came up and relieved me and I ended up drafting off of the back of the group all the way to California. It is a bit of a surprise that the Peugeot is geared so closely to our average group speed but I had very little trouble keeping up as Tax Man led us south to Stowe.

As we headed west on Stowe I moved to the number two spot and stayed on Tax Man’s wheel as we headed towards Winchester farms. It took us about one hundred and fifty yards to pull away from Digger and the three of us stayed together till we were in sight of the metal Barn where Tax Man increased his pace and I has to spin up to about one hundred RPMs to stay with him. We did separate from Highlander just before the parking lot and pulled in for a regroup.

Once we were ready to head out again I started first and headed south towards the dump road. The rest of the group got stuck at the corner as I pulled onto Winchester first. I was most of the way to 9th street before I could see the other three behind me. I turned west on the dump road and headed towards the Wild West Arena and almost got there before Tax Man pulled up behind me. To be honest I was feeling stronger than I have in months and felt that the Peugeot was a good choice for today’s ride. Tax Man and Highlander chased me to Leon and Tax Man took over the pull on Leon and took us to Simpson and west. We decided to wait for Digger at the turn onto Briggs and once he joined us he and I led us up to McCall and west again. In pulled the group to Menifee and north towards Florida. The group let me lead then to the AM/PM station and a chance to refill our water bottles. I had on a backpack with my water supply because there are no water braise on fittings on the Peugeot. Once we were refreshed we headed back out onto Menifee and I led us north towards Mapes and the ride to Nuevo. I figured I could hold my own on the slight uphill to the Nursery but might be at a disadvantage on the down slope towards Central.

To my surprise the cutting back on my Statins , with my doctors permission, has made putting out more leg effort a bit easier and I find I am not running into the Beta Blocker wall as often as I used to. After we crested the rise on Menifee I started to pick up the pace and soon had us rolling along at about 20 mph. Feeling this would not be fast enough for Tax Man I checked my cadence and found I was turning about 100mto110. To get to 23 I had to crank it up to 120 without bouncing and to my surprise that was just what I was able to do by the time we got to the first stop sign. I was still leading as we left the stop sign and so I took us to Central and noticed digger was pretty close behind us as we rolled through the intersection. I got us down to Nuevo and headed for Lakeview with Highlander and Tax Man in tow. The Peugeot is geared almost perfectly for the slight climb to Lakeview and so I was able to pull Highlander and Tax man to the stop sign and into the shade on Lakeview to wait for Digger. Once he joined us we headed north on Lakeview with me still pulling.

We made our way to the Valero Station and turned east to the Lakeview market for a break before heading out onto the Expressway towards Warren. I pulled most of the way to the dairy farms before Highlander took over and he pulled till just past Bridge where Tax Man took over and headed for Warren. Digger fell back before we got to Warren and we puled away as we turned south towards Cottonwood. Tax Man was pulling like a freight train on our way south and soon and us down to Cottonwood where we once again regrouped before heading east towards Sanderson. Tax Man set the pace to the CVS and then south on Sanderson. I took over shortly after we rolled by Esplanade and pulled us to Devonshire. Tax Man took over on Devonshire and pulled us to Gilmore where we split up and headed for the bike shop where we finished the ride. I took a brief break inside the shop before heading for home and hot shower.