As of this evening, Rose is the owner of the prototype Xstream. Congrats, Dear!

Ride like the wind! Errr………… I mean, ride IN the wind! Yesterday morning at 7:30 am, Ray, Nelson, Mark H, and I rode out of Prosper to do Nelson’s new Live Long and Prosper 200k permanent, which is an out and back to Forestburg. And of course, the wind was howling.

This route works it way northwest until hitting FM455 west of Sanger, then stays on FM455 to Forestburg. It was a quiet, enjoyable morning that passed without any problems until we were almost to the second control at Bolivar, when Nelson had to stop to air up a tire. He made it to the control, then had to replace the tube there.

We rode on to Forestburg, through the grasslands, gaining altitude in the rolling hills. There aren’t many trees along this stretch, but the tops of the hills give a scenic view of the countryside. We arrived in Forestburg at 12:30, and took a longer break there, at the old Forestburg Country Store.

The first stretch coming back from Forestburg was almost a headwind, making those first hills a bit tough. The other stretches that were tough were two jaunts straight into the wind, one for a couple of miles on FM2153 and one for almost 5 miles on FM1385. But we handled the wind well, and navigated the course without any serious problems. We didn’t quite finish the ride before dark, arriving back in Prosper at 6:55 pm. I ended up with 129.2 miles. It was a good route and great company for the day. Thanks, guys, I had a great time!

Around 30 riders showed up for this ride starting at Richardson Bike Mart. It was a nice turnout on a beautiful day. The wind did pick up some as the ride went (big surprise, huh). Early in the ride, the lead group was riding a pretty moderate pace, so I joined them, along with Steve and Greg. The closer we got to the first control at mile 22, the faster the pace got. I was dropped on a couple of hills, but managed to catch the group.

But on the Hwy 66 bridge, just before the control, I was huffing and puffing along at 24 mph, and still being dropped. I wasn’t quite ready to leave the control as the group started to leave, and realizing I wasn’t going to be able to hold their pace as the ride became more hilly anyway, I just took my time leaving the control, and rode alone, at my own pace, for the rest of the ride.

I thought the three biggest problems with this route were traffic, traffic, and traffic. That kind of traffic is even worse for a single rider, than it would be for a group. With 20/20 hindsight, I guess I should have fallen back to the group behind me.

I ended up with 66.6 miles total (does that sound like the devil’s ride or what?), with an on the bike average of 15.1 mph. I finished the ride in 5 hours and 2 minutes. Steve and Greg had gotten quite a distance in front of me, and I was very surprised to not see them or their bikes when I reached the finish, and had no idea what might have happened to them until Paul showed up and told me. Gotta love those BONUS MILES!

The start.

T-shirt given to me at the ride.