The day arrived for the Hotter N Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls. I drove there on Friday, went to bed early and was up at 4:45 AM to get ready. Driving to the parking areas I found a spot close to the Event Center. I brought my Canyon Endurace bike for the ride and got it out of the Jeep, attached all of the accessories and rode to the 100k starting block at 6th Street and Scott. The sun wasn’t up yet but it didn’t take too long for it to brighten up. The planes flew over at 7:05 AM as the national anthem finished and the cannon boomed. The 100k group waited until 7:23 AM for the pylon to move out of the way and we were off.
A big concern for many riders was the intense heat. It probably kept some people from coming for the ride. The forecast called for 106 to 107. At the start it was 79 with a light wind from the NW. It felt cooling. I didn’t start feeling hot until I left the third rest stop at 31.6 miles riding into the sun. I finished at 12:32 and it was 103. In many times in the past the ride from Burkburnett to the finish was into a headwind, sometimes strong. This year the wind was from the north making a tailwind from where I turned onto the I-44 frontage road to the finish. This helped a lot. It probably made many of the Strava segment medals possible. Strava chose these four to highlight: PR on Support our Troops (2:00), PR on How Fast Can You Go Through Burk? (12:45), 2nd fastest time on HHH Wind Relief (19:07), and 2nd fastest time on FM 368 to FM 369 (19:48).
The hardest part of the ride was on FM 2384 going north. The road had new chip n seal with large rocks vibrating the bike from FM 367 to US 287 into a headwind. This lasted about 8 miles. I almost stopped on the US 287 overpass because it was smooth concrete to relish the vibration stopping. FM 2384 continued north of US 287 but was not new chip n seal. I called that section “black gravel” and count it as a gravel ride. The rest of the roads varied from old chip n seal, asphalt, and concrete. After the ride when I stood in the shower the bottom of my feet felt like they had blisters from FM 2384. Not the memory I wanted.
The video
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