By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) It seems like Fall is in the air because I was cold enough to have to put on arm and leg warmers today. I knew Dragon Slayer was gone on a hunting trip but I didn’t know the status of anyone else. Digger and Earth Dog were waiting at the bike shop but that was it. Just the three of us left the bike shop at 8am and headed north on Lyon. With just three of us I figured we would more or less cruise up to the Expressway and take turns heading west towards Nuevo. I got out front but we were only rolling along at about 16 as we headed for Es[planade.

Things were going according to plan as we rolled by Esplanade and headed for Seventh Street. As we closed in on Cottonwood it started to get a bit breezy and I could only hope it would be light as predicted. As we got to Ramona Boulevard I was starting to get disappointed because the wind was picking up much earlier than I wanted. Earth Dog took a turn at the front as we headed west on Ramona and ended up pulling us to Sanderson and the light at the Expressway. I started us west on the Expressway and pulled to Warren before Earth Dog took over again and pulled most of the way to Hansen. We were more or less together as we pulled into the Nuevo Market parking lot and took a short break. Once we were ready to go we moved over to Lakeview and headed south. This time I started one of my longest pulls heading towards Nuevo.

It took me a while to get is to Nuevo and head west again and I pulled us even farther west as we went by Menifee on Nuevo and headed towards Evans. This time the slight grade worked against Digger and once Earth Dog took over the lead from me we slowly pulled away till we had about 100 yards on him and waited at the light on Dunlap till he joined us and then headed for Evans. As we crossed the light on Evans we saw another rider heading in our direction and it looked like someone we knew. It turned out to be Randy and he had decided to join us for the rest of the ride. He turned back and rode with us to Redlands Street and turned south towards Forth Street.

At this point Randy was the freshest of the group and he was riding up front with either Earth Dog or me as we rode to the 7-11 on 4th. We took a quick pit stop and the followed Earth Dog south to Gage and over to Goetz to once again head south. By now the wind was in our face and my hope was that at least we would get a side wind when we turned east at Ethernic. I was also glad I was on the Klein and could use the aero-bars to get under the wind in my face. Once we were headed east I took the lead and got us to Murrieta and headed south again towards Rouse where Randy took over for a while and we managed to drop Digger and Earth Dog. They caught us at Rouse and we made our way to Bradley to head south back towards McCall. I pushed pretty hard to get by Earth Dog and made our way to McCall and east. Earth Dog and I waited for Digger and Randy at the Valero and only headed for Hospital Hill when we saw they were going to make the light at the Gas Station. I made a run for the hill and managed to stay in front of Earth Dog over the hill and down to the light at Menifee. We regrouped after the light before riding to Briggs and north through the dirt to the dump road and east towards Leon.

The plan was if we got any favorable wind I wanted to attack the Arena Flag sprint and see if I could get Earth Dog a PR on the segment. As we closed on Leon and Earth Dog started to make a run at the rise to get ready for the sprint. I pulled around him just before the start of the segment and started to pick up speed. Even with his new gears he was able to get up to over 30 as we headed for the flag. It can be hard to push through the whole segment if you start out too hard and that seems to be what happened to Earth Dog about 100 yards before we finished. I soft pedaled to the Pentecostal center where Earth Dog closed within about 25 yards but lost some space as I turned onto Winchester and headed for Stowe and Winchester farms. We pulled into the parking lot a took a break at Winchester farms. Once we had spent some time reliving the ride we headed out onto Stowe and east towards California.

I led us north into the wind on California and started us east on Stetson. Earth Dog and I pulled away to Warren and then at the airport I fell back to get Digger and Randy. I took them onto Cawston and over to Sanderson so we could head north to Lowes. Once we got on Acacia Randy pulled us to Kirby and then to the street behind the Bike shop to get to the parking lot. We separated at the Bike shop and I headed for home and a hot shower.