Like these brevets often do, this one seemed like an epic adventure. Around 30 of us left Italy, Tx at 6:30 am, with most riders doing the 300k brevet. As always, I opted for the 200k. The first disappointment came quickly: FM667, just south of Italy had new chipseal, and it went all the way to our turnoff onto SH31 at mile 25. The 300k group was hammering quickly, at a pace too fast for me, and I fell off the back of the group before that turn. Even with a slow start, riding mostly on rough chipseal, going against the wind, and falling off the group, I still had an 18 mph average at mile 25.

When the lead group stopped at the first control in Dawson at mile 28, they were in and out of the store faster than any brevet group I’ve ever seen. George Elizondo was standing in line behind me, waiting to get his brevet card signed at the counter, when they took off. His mouth dropped open; he had intended on leaving with them.

Steve, Peggy, and I left a few minutes later, and kept a more reasonable pace against the wind after that. When Peggy stopped a few miles later to investigate a Camelbak leak, Sharon Stevens joined us, and rode with us the rest of the way to Mexia (which was her control stop; she was doing the 300k). We continued on to Groesbeck for our control stop at mile 64.

We stopped a bit longer at this control, but still tried to get going fairly quickly to get as far down the road as we could before the heat got too bad. With all the new chipseal at the beginning of this ride, it now has an awfully lot of chipseal, and that combined with the heat had my feet really screaming before we reached the next control, which is the famous Dixie’s Little Stop at Mount Calm, mile 93. Steve and Peggy were both also complaining of their feet, so we all shed shoes at this stop.

I don’t know what the official high temperature was today, but by the time we made that 93 mile control, the heat was really oppressive. I usually tolerate heat very well, but I had to admit to feeling as wiped out at this control as I have in a while. I wondered how I’d hold up the rest of the way, and since we were still 38 miles from the finish, we all agreed to make an unscheduled stop or two on the last stretch. As we left Dixie’s, we spotted Richard Wittenburg just about to pull into the control. Peggy said she thought he was doing the 300k, and even though I know he’s a strong rider, we were all amazed that he had gotten this far already.

Steve and Peggy are some kind of strong riders. They still had the energy to sprint for city limit signs and such on this stretch. I was content to just try to pedal myself in, riding behind them. Even though we were now headed mostly north, the wind was so southwest, it still felt like a head wind at times. But, our average speed was showing gains now, so it had to be a tail wind a good bit of the time, too. The bad part of a tail wind on a 100+ degree afternoon is that with no breeze on you, a slower speed up a hill gets you with almost unbearable heat.

We made an unscheduled stop in Malone at mile 109 to cool off and give our feet another break. I downed an RC Cola to see if the caffeine and sugar would help. I still felt pretty wiped out, but was turning the pedals ok. We stopped on a shady sidewalk in Milford, 6 miles from the finish, getting another soft drink from a machine, and resting our feet one more time. As we were packing up to take off again, Richard rode by. We were blown away, thinking that a 300k rider was going to finish before us. I should have known what was going to happen next…

After dropping a bottle, and having to go back for it, Steve went zipping past Peggy and I, and I had a feeling that I knew what was on his mind. Somehow I found the energy to speed up too, and did 20 to 21 mph most of the rest of the way in. I didn’t come close to catching Steve, but I caught and passed Richard, as did Peggy behind me. It turned out he was just doing the 200k, too. He had gotten started a bit late, and had stomach issues early. It’s a good reminder that, in this kind of heat, even strong riders can easily have a tough day. Richard said his watch was showing a temperature of 109 while riding.

I finished the ride in 10:24, with a 15.9 mph average, and a total of 131.8 miles. My gps showed 3100 feet of climbing on the route. As always, it was great riding with Steve and Peggy. I suspect I slowed them down a bit today, but it was the kind of day that being slowed down a bit probably helped them. I told Rose I was going to be pretty worthless tomorrow. She asked me what else was new…