The Katy Ram Challenge began at the Katy Mills Mall outside of the Sun Ski Sport store. Looking over the crowd and noticing numbers during the ride I estimate between 1565 to 1800 riders were on the roads north of Katy. The rest stops were full. The third one was short on sport drink when I got there. Rest stop 5 actually had two flavors of sport drink to choose from. I took the orange. The Vanilla Wafers were a nice switch.
For the first time in several rides I did not see one crash. I hope there were none on the course. I was riding the 62 mile route, actual mileage was 60.56 on my computer.
While the temperature at the start time was a chilly 53 the wind was not an issue. With the start time set at 8:00 AM we were going after sunrise. The ride marshalls divided the starting groups into 150 to 200 riders to give some space between the riders. This and the wide streets may have contributed to the lack of start line crashes.
If you have not been to the far west portion of Harris County, Katy is in the prairie with flat land and lots of farming. Where the skunk part comes in is the numerous roadkill of shunks the 62 mile course passed. My nose was getting a steady sniff of each of these. But the stench from some “natural” fertilizer around the second rest stop (it was being spread in a field) over powered the skunk frangrance easily. This smell reached a 2 to 3 mile distance. We got it going and coming as the route passed this field twice.
The first wildflowers were blooming. Indian Paintbrushes and what my wife says are Primrose dotted the roadside on the back half of the 62 mile route.
Not much happened on this ride as far as excitement. My speed was a little slower this week than last week’s Tour de Houston. The roads were even flatter with only one overpass at the beginning to get us over I-10. From then on I think the most elevation change was 25 or 30 feet.
I wasn’t sure if I would have pictures of the ride. When I got home my digital camera would not read the memory card but after an hour of working with it I got the pictures onto my computer. Here they are. click on the picture for a larger version and visit the link at the bottom for all of the ones I took.
The packet pickup entrance to Sun Ski Sport.
The pre-registration line.
The band from Mayde Creek High School, ride beneficiary, set up their instruments at the start line. They provided music before the start.
Riders getting ready.
Riders getting in position to start the ride.
Entering rest stop 1.
Riders at rest stop 1.
Rest stop #2. It isn’t often I get Chili Cheese Fritos as a rest stop food item. They had them here.
Rest stop #3. We made it past the smelly fertilizer when we reached this stop.
This lady was a very friendly volunteer at the last rest stop in Brookshire.
Riders and another volunteer at rest stop #4 on the 62 mile route. I did not take any finish line pictures. The Katy Mills Mall was moving along and there wasn’t much going on at the finish area.
Link to all of my pictures of this ride.
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Katy Ram Challenge, Texas Prairie and Skunks
The Katy Ram Challenge began at the Katy Mills Mall outside of the Sun Ski Sport store. Looking over the crowd and noticing numbers during the ride I estimate between 1565 to 1800 riders were on the roads north of Katy. The rest stops were full. The third one was short on sport drink when I got there. Rest stop 5 actually had two flavors of sport drink to choose from. I took the orange. The Vanilla Wafers were a nice switch.
For the first time in several rides I did not see one crash. I hope there were none on the course. I was riding the 62 mile route, actual mileage was 60.56 on my computer.
While the temperature at the start time was a chilly 53 the wind was not an issue. With the start time set at 8:00 AM we were going after sunrise. The ride marshalls divided the starting groups into 150 to 200 riders to give some space between the riders. This and the wide streets may have contributed to the lack of start line crashes.
If you have not been to the far west portion of Harris County, Katy is in the prairie with flat land and lots of farming. Where the skunk part comes in is the numerous roadkill of shunks the 62 mile course passed. My nose was getting a steady sniff of each of these. But the stench from some “natural” fertilizer around the second rest stop (it was being spread in a field) over powered the skunk frangrance easily. This smell reached a 2 to 3 mile distance. We got it going and coming as the route passed this field twice.
The first wildflowers were blooming. Indian Paintbrushes and what my wife says are Primrose dotted the roadside on the back half of the 62 mile route.
Not much happened on this ride as far as excitement. My speed was a little slower this week than last week’s Tour de Houston. The roads were even flatter with only one overpass at the beginning to get us over I-10. From then on I think the most elevation change was 25 or 30 feet.
I wasn’t sure if I would have pictures of the ride. When I got home my digital camera would not read the memory card but after an hour of working with it I got the pictures onto my computer. Here they are. click on the picture for a larger version and visit the link at the bottom for all of the ones I took.
The packet pickup entrance to Sun Ski Sport.
The pre-registration line.
The band from Mayde Creek High School, ride beneficiary, set up their instruments at the start line. They provided music before the start.
Riders getting ready.
Riders getting in position to start the ride.
Entering rest stop 1.
Riders at rest stop 1.
Rest stop #2. It isn’t often I get Chili Cheese Fritos as a rest stop food item. They had them here.
Rest stop #3. We made it past the smelly fertilizer when we reached this stop.
This lady was a very friendly volunteer at the last rest stop in Brookshire.
Riders and another volunteer at rest stop #4 on the 62 mile route. I did not take any finish line pictures. The Katy Mills Mall was moving along and there wasn’t much going on at the finish area.
Link to all of my pictures of this ride.