By Ari Bloomekatz and Armand Emamdjomeh, Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times

December 27, 2012

But not tonight. Whizzing through LAX, the pack keeps a steady pace while swerving past construction workers and orange cones.

They pour on the speed and exit onto Century Boulevard. The pack falls into a single-file line so riders can take turns blocking the wind.

The hustle back to Tang's is 15 more miles — and, who knows, it's a big city, and they're already talking about another detour.

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Wolfpack riders acknowledge that negotiating L.A.'s streets in the dark, zigzagging around cars and running red lights, can be a dangerous addiction.

On their way to LAX, the riders climb Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, standing up on their pedals through a dark stretch illuminated by infrequent street lamps and headlights.

Ivan Therrien, a 33-year-old bike shop manager from Mar Vista, is pushing his neon-red carbon S-Works Tarmac to the limit but is caught off guard by a protruding asphalt ridge. He topples head-first into a concrete light post.

The bike survives. Therrien fractures his wrist and injures his shoulder. He hitches a ride to the next regrouping spot at the Santa Monica Pier, hobbles back onto his bicycle and rides home.

"You can't live in fear," Therrien says. "You can account for drivers and you can be defensive, but you can't account for every eventuality. The question is: Do I feel whole if I don't do this? And the answer is no."

When Elliott Pallett arrived in Los Angeles a couple of years ago, he heard Wolfpack had some of the "most hard-core riders in L.A." So the 26-year-old aerospace engineer with a red goatee went out to see for himself.

On his first ride, he struggled to hang on as the pack pounded up a hill on Sunset. After the first incline, he was gasping and dropped off the back of the pack, struggling to make it to the first of three regrouping spots. He caught up for a moment, but before he knew it the pack was off again.

"It was a humbling experience," he says. "I made a resolution to someday join the lead pack."

He pushed himself each Monday for about five months. Then he did it.

The weekly rides are for fun and exercise, Wolfpack riders say, and even though their motto is "It's not a race, it's a hustle," each Monday night is a challenge: "First one back to Tang's."

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A few hours before the start of the Los Angeles Marathon, thousands of bicyclists are illegally blocking Sunset Boulevard. Wolfpack Hustle's informal leader, 40-year-old Don Ward — better known by his handle, "Roadblock" — is chatting with a group of police officers.

The riders are there to crash the blocked-off marathon course for their own race before runners show up. It's a chance to hit the streets with no traffic and an organized course.

Now an annual event, the pre-marathon ride draws cyclists from out of state and even some LAPD officers participating as civilians.

Police have shut down several impromptu Wolfpack rides over the years. But Ward has built a relationship with some City Hall officials and LAPD Sgt. Gordon Helper, a supporter who believes the group is helping young people be healthier and more engaged.

Charlie Gandy, a bicycle consultant based in Long Beach, said city officials there have sought Ward's advice on how to attract more youths to the sport.