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.