Today’s ride was in Katy, TX starting at the Katy Mills Mall. I left home at 6:05AM expecting to arrive around 7:05AM. I got there at 6:55AM since the traffic was not anything like a weekday. I work on the west side of Houston so I am familiar with this route during the week. I had pre-registered so picking up my packet and number was a breeze. The table was inside the Sun & Ski Sports store and my alphabet group had no line. I asked the young man handing out the packet materials how riders they were expecting and he said over 2,000. When the ride started at 8:00 AM (on time) I think his estimate was correct. My ride number was 377.

The Ride Marshals let riders start in groups to spread everyone out. This helps to minimize the crashes and I did not see one crash although I did see a lady around the 34 mile mark getting some medical attention. I overheard some riders that had stopped say she would probably need some stitches.

While I was waiting for the ride to start I talked with a lady (I did not ask for her name, but should have) who had ridden the LBJ 100 and has some big plans next year to ride coast to coast to celebrate her 50th birthday. She also plans to ride the HH100 and the RAGBRAI this year. She said she does not ride fast because she stops to look and take pictures. I saw her during the ride doing just that.

The weather was picture perfect today except for the very strong headwind that slowed me to 12 to 13 mph on FM359 heading south. I think the wind was 20 mph and being a prairie type terrain there was not a thing to block it. Some riders were stopping along the road to get some relief before riding more. Thankfully when we got to Pattison the route changed from due south to more ESE and the wind was from the side. As long as we had a tailwind on the route I was able to ride 18 to 20 mph. The road surfaces were pretty good except for a short section on Repka Road. Chip and seal surfaces were not an issue either.

One problem I had was at the 16.2 mile mark I ran over a sheetrock screw and killed my rear tube. I walked 100 yards or so to get off of the road and preceded to patch the tube but the screw had went through in multiple places and patching it was not practical. The Ride Marshal that had given the ride instructions at the beginning stopped to help. This support sped things along. This time I had the right tire tools unlike the ride in Coldspring earlier this year. After I replaced the tube with my spare I was back on the road thanks to my Lezyne pump. This pump is a gem. I had no trouble pressuring the tire to over 100 PSI.

With the sun I am glad I had applied sun screen at home. I heard several people asking at the rest stops if they had sun screen. They did. I am going to change from the cheap WalMart sunscreen and use the Nutragena Ultra. It is not as oily but still holds up through the sweat.

Overall this was a great ride. I did notice the rest stops appeared to have run out of ice by the time I got there. The high traffic intersections had people there to direct car traffic. they were very friendly and efficient. The rest stop volunteers were great.

April mileage update:

• April miles 200.75
• YTD miles 1027.42 (finally crossed the 1,00 mark)
• average speed today even with the wind was 15.1 mph

4-09-2011 Ride Data and Map

There are two photo galleries for this ride.

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