When I left home at 7 AM the temperature on my home weather station showed 38 degrees. This is way below my bike tolerance level. I paid the $40 and knew it would warm up as the ride moved along though. The ride was scheduled to start at 8 AM but when I went inside the registration line was long. While I was standing in line (it turns out I didn’t need to) I handed out a few Texbiker.net business cards. The man in front of me was Mel. He said he knew about Texbiker.net and visited the site frequently. I snapped a few pictures and went back to the Jeep to get ready. Here are some pictures before the ride started. (Click on an image to enlarge it)
The last picture shows the temperature is slightly warmer than when I left home, thankfully.
With the long registration line the start time was delayed until 8:11 AM. As we rolled away a pickup truck was parked square in the middle of the exit. I hear someone say it had been there all night. Early while I was waiting I had to move up in the crowd because a group of Cervelo riders were using profanity and the “F” bomb when they talked. I guess they don’t care what other people have to hear.
Once we got past the dead pickup truck we rode along about 1/2 a mile and stopped while the police got organized. I think they might have been waiting for all the riders to get on Will Clayton Parkway. According to a couple of ride marshals the police could only shut down traffic for 15 minutes. While I was stopped another biker pulled up beside e and asked if I was Texbiker. I said yes and Bruce told me he also visited Texbiker.net and had watched the video of me assembling (partially) the Stradalli RP-14 Carbon I was riding. He said he check the site for rides around Texas and was planning on doing the Lancaster Country Ride near Dallas that he found on Texbiker.net. I thanked him and we started to move again.
It was cold as I rode along. I was pretty well dressed for the cold except I chose to use half-finger gloves so I wouldn’t need to carry another pair. I wore two long sleeve jerseys, leg warmers (the tops under my shorts), a head scarf and a wind breaker jacket. I was cold for the a few miles but once I got warmed up I didn’t notice the cold. Fortunately we started with a tailwind. This lasted until the 15 mile point with a right turn on Ramsey Road. I had built my average speed up to 16.9 mph at that point. A tailwind is a good thing. But like riding in hills or mountains there is a time to pay back. From the that point until the end the wind was either in my face or trying to slow me down from one direction or another.
I stopped at the second rest stop at 15 miles to take some pictures before moving on. I am generally familiar with the route but checked the map just in case there were some changes.
Now the route was mostly to the south with a couple of sections going east or west. The wind was biting but I was staying warm. The next stop was in the middle of US 90 east of Crosby. Not a rest stop but I wanted to check the weather and get a picture of my Garmin stats.
The temperature increased by 15 degrees from the start and there was lots of sun but the wind was still cold.
After crossing US 90 and riding on some side roads I started to wonder if I had made a wrong turn. I followed the signs but several of the no longer showed the route mileage. I watched other riders in front and went with them. At the next rest stop in Crosby all of the signs showed the 46.6 mile route but no 51.1 mile route signs. I knew from past years this was the route but now I was wondering if I missed a turn. Looking at the map when I got home I saw that I should have rode on FM1492 some but I didn’t. Here are some shots at the Crosby rest stop.
I stayed the course on the route and followed the 46.6 mile route signs calculating in mind how far I would ride based on some guesses. At the last rest stop I took a break for some drink, trail mix bar and fruit bar.
While I was resting another biker told someone how far he thought it was to the finish. My estimate was a couple of miles longer but still short of the 51.1 miles I planned on. I got ready and started the last leg to the finish. It turned out my route was longer than the 46.6 but slightly shorter than the 51.1 coming in at 49.65 miles. This makes it the longest so far this year and the first organized ride as well. My average speed was either 15.5 mph (Golden Cheetah) or 15.1 mph (Garmin Connect).
I stopped my Garmin 510 at 11:57 as I rolled into the parking lot at the finish. People were eating lunch and swapping stories. I got some water and headed to the Jeep. A couple of pictures of the finish area.
On the way home the temperature according to the Jeep was 75 degrees. It felt nice after taking off the soaking wet jerseys and gloves. With this ride my mileage standings:
- 161.69 miles for the week
- 265.58 miles for February (about 100 short of my goal)
- 407.08 for the year to date
RideWithGPS map, metrics and charts.
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