Greg and I rode the River Roll to Up a Creek Sports 205k permanent today. We left from Davis Drive, just south of Green Oaks in north Arlington, at 7:30 am. The route quickly gets on the bike path along side Green Oaks, between River Legacy and Village Creek, heading west, then takes some city streets to Gateway Park, goes through all sorts of stuff at Gateway (including carrying your bike up and down stairs at one point), finally getting on the Trinity Trail, and following it all the way west until it ends. It then goes to Benbrook lake, following the park road on the west side of the lake, then heads west to Aledo, does a loop to Willow Park then south on FM5, circling back around to Aledo, then takes the same route back to the start.

On a good day, this route would be slow, because of all the park and bike path stops and turns. But today, the wind was brutal, and I didn’t think Greg and I were ever going to finish it. There were lots of scary moments from the cross wind, and at one point going downhill while headed south on FM5, 11 mph was all I could manage.

There is nothing to block the wind in the Aledo area, and every time we topped one of the hills there, the wind was just incredible. Headed north, coasting down one hill southeast of Aledo, I reached 45 mph. That’s faster than I coast down either Texas Plume or Goatneck Hill. It wasn’t the steepness of the hill as much as the tailwind. But when we had to climb that same hill against the wind later in the ride, it was one of the toughest stretches I’ve ridden in a while. I was at 4 mph much of the climb, but I did reach the top without stopping.

The traffic on parts of this route, particularly FM1187 just east of Aledo, and FM5 just south of Willow Park are so bad that I won’t be in a hurry to do this route again. Of course today’s wind made the traffic even scarier. The finishing touch for the ride was when Greg flatted just three miles from the finish.

In spite of the fact that we were in and out of all the controls fairly quickly, it took us 11 hours and 44 minutes to complete this ride today. I finished with 129.1 miles. My on the bike mph average was a blazing 14.0. But we survived another epic adventure, with no major disasters and equipment in tact. Thanks, Greg.

Steve, Nelson, and I took off from Winscott Road in Benbrook at 7:30 am. This 106 mile route goes west from there to Aledo, then turns north and goes through Willow Park, before stopping at the second control at Lake Weatherford. From there, it goes north through Springtown, then on to Paradise for the next control. From there, it turns around and retraces its route back to Springtown, then turns east and goes into west Fort Worth, before turning south and returning to Benbrook. This route really has a lot of turns, but between the three of us, we managed to not miss any turn by much, and kept our bonus miles to less than half a mile.

On the way to the ride, my truck temperature gauge showed 42 degrees, lower than was forecast. There was a northwest wind which picked up as the day went. It was cold. The sun came out only briefly; the rest of the day was cloudy. After the ride, my temperature gauge showed 52 degrees, not nearly as warm as was forecast. It was cold. Did I mention it was cold?

This is a hilly route. Most of the roads are very low traffic though, and not rough. There are some excellent views from the stretch you ride just after reaching the highest elevation on the route, which we climbed to at mile 32, and also a very pretty valley with lots of pecan trees just before Paradise. It even manages to climb Radio Tower Hill as it approaches Fort Worth from the west. There was also lots of wildlife on the route, including deer and quite a few squirrels, one of which ran between me and Steve and Nelson, who were just in front of me. We even saw a road runner. This route whipped me pretty well today, but I really do like it anyway.

In spite of my diminished climbing ability this year, I had managed to climb every hill in front of me (except when my chain jammed once) until today. At mile 97 on Paint Pony Road in far west Fort Worth, I was unable to climb the last bit of a 23 percent grade hill, and had to walk it. It was so steep, I had trouble getting traction with my shoes as I walked the bike. If I thought that was the ride’s final insult for me, I was mistaken. At mile 102, a light rain started. The raindrops were so cold, they felt like sleet hitting my face. It only lasted a couple of miles, and had quit before we finished.

As usual, the company on this ride was excellent, and Nelson even treated me to a Subway sandwich after the ride. Thanks, Nelson. And thanks, Steve, for inviting me along. I ended up with 106.2 miles, and 4400 feet of climbing. My maximum heart rate for the route was 180, and I can tell you exactly where that happened. We finished in 8 hours and 40 minutes. That’s a pretty poor time for a century, but on this day, and this route, with these conditions, that’s all I could manage. Thanks, Steve and Nelson!

The graph below shows the elevation and grade percent for the route from my gps. You can see the highest elevation at mile 32, and the 23 percent grade at mile 97 that stopped me in my tracks.

I bought this bike new from Steve Delaire last December, received it in January, but just recently finally got it dialed in, and with so few around, figured I’d do a report on it. I bought it as a project to tinker with (lowracers have a way of turning into projects, anyway), at a time when I needed a distraction, but didn’t plan on spending this long getting it the way I wanted it. I knew I was having lung surgery when I bought it, but had no idea it would be April before I finished chemo.

I am truly impressed with the basic bike, but like many Performer and China Mascot bikes, it was definitely rough around the edges. The frame is a combination of carbon fiber and aluminum. The straight tubes are carbon, but every curve is aluminum, with the carbon tubes epoxied in, The tubes aren’t totally carbon fiber, either. They’re very thin aluminum tubing, wrapped in carbon fiber. It all makes for a bike that’s not as light as a pure carbon fiber bike, but I suspect it’s extremely strong. I haven’t seen a weight limit for it. It’s ride is excellent, the best I’ve seen for a bike with a 451 front wheel.

It’s not as low as a Baron or Fujin or TiCa, so I guess you’d have to call it a quasi-lowracer. The rear brake mounts on a clamp which can be moved, so you can use any rear wheel from 559 to 700c. I tried a 559 on it just to see how it felt. It was a bit lower, and I liked the small amount of additional recline, but I ended up going back to the 700c.

The boom on the bike is adjustable; the seat doesn’t adjust forward or back. The seat that came with it was the standard frp (fiberglass reinforced plastic) Performer/China Mascot seat. Besides being heavy, it was much too big for me, and I replaced it with a medium size CCK seat, back before they got so expensive. That instantly made the bike two pounds lighter (24.5 pounds rather than 26.5), and fit me much better. The rear mount for the seat has a slot that lets the seat adjust a couple of inches, but it wouldn’t let the seat recline as much as I wanted, so I made a simple non-adjustable bracket, and used it to get the seat more reclined.

The original handlebar looked worthless for a lowracer, so I got Steve to replace it with tweener bars, but his were much too wide for me, and I replaced them with the same narrow Bacchetta bars I have on my Corsa. The original tilting riser didn’t work for me either, so I replaced it with a straight riser, and an mtb stem to get the handlebar far enough away from me. It’s a great feeling setup now.

The brake levers which came with it were long pull levers which were a mismatch for the road brakes on it, and gave it awful stopping power, so I replaced them with Avid Speed Dial levers. It came with two double idlers, one under the seat and another above the fork. After much experimentation, I decided I didn’t like both idlers on it (too noisy, and seemed to lose too much power), and ended up only using the idler under the seat, with the chain crossed on it, Bacchetta style. There is chain interference with the fork, but only on very sharp turns, and I just added a strip of velcro to protect the fork.

The wheels which came with it were not heavy, but not very strong either, I suspect (I never did see a brand on them). I trashed the front wheel when I hit a deep grate, and have had an old POS front wheel on it since. I have new a Velocity Uriel wheelset with upgraded spokes ordered for it from Zach.

I rode both this bike and my Corsa in The Texas Time Trials in September. It’s a bit faster than the Corsa, but you have to be stronger than me to really take advantage of the great lowracer aerodynamics. My speed difference on the two bikes is only slight. It is truly a blast to ride, and I expect to start getting a lot more miles on it. Below is from The Texas Time Trials.

Steve, Ray, Greg, and I set out at 7:30 am this morning to do this 100k permanent. The temperature was in the 40’s, and the wind was already howling out of the northwest, and would get harder as the day went. This ride starts near I-20 and Green Oaks in Arlington, and heads out south of town on roads used by many club rides, making a control stop in Venus, then heading northwest to I-35W and Garden Acres for the second control. I know most of these roads, but there were a few new wrinkles thrown in, a few roads I hadn’t ridden before.

The question of whether we would end up with bonus miles was answered quickly when we made a wrong turn less than 5 miles into the ride, and picked up 6 extra miles. The familiar roads headed out to Venus are small, rough in places, and have lots of turns. We almost missed a couple of other turns, but caught ourselves fairly quickly. Most of this route is low traffic roads, and I was ready for that, since the last couple of randonneuring rides I have done have been in more traffic than I want to contend with.

After leaving the Venus control at mile 32, we made the north and west trek to the next control, 25 miles away. This stretch was brutal, with almost all of it being against the wind. I could not hold the group’s pace on this stretch, and blew myself up, trying to. When we left the next control for the final 17 miles, I only had two speeds left: slow and slower. Some of this stretch had us riding north, against the wind, but thankfully, more of it was east, with a quartering tail wind.

We finished the ride at 1:10 pm, for a 5:40 total. My total miles were 74.3. I wore tights, jacket, heavy gloves, and balaclava on this ride, and never had the urge to shed any clothes. By the time the sun got up high, and the temperature climbed a bit, we turned to face the wind. As always, I enjoyed the good company on this ride. Thanks, Steve, Ray, and Greg!

7 of us, all on recumbents, rolled out of Rockwall at 7:30 am yesterday morning to do the Ferris Wheel 200k permanent. There was Steve, Peggy, Greg, Ray, Nelson, Bryan, and me. Greg only lasted 4 miles or so when boom issues on his new bike cut his ride short. Toward the end of the ride, it started looking iffy whether or not Nelson would be able to finish, after rear wheel hub damage showed up, but he did finish.

This route goes southwest out of Rockwell, goes through Forney, then crosses the Trinity River near Combine, and on to Ferris. Then it turns southeast, getting hilly for a bit, then turns northeast on SH34. It angles more north from Scurry, going through Crandall and Terrell, before heading back to Rockwall. There are some rough spots, and some stretches of chipseal, but the roads on this route are pretty good, overall. The traffic, though, is just about a deal breaker for me, with lots of high speed roads with no shoulders.

It was pretty chilly early in the morning, with lows in the lower 40’s, but warmed up into a beautiful day. The north wind never blew really hard, although it seemed to change around enough to be in our faces on three fourths of the ride.

No matter what speed you like to ride, we rode it at one point or another on this ride. Nelson sprinted often and far, scattering us out, then we’d regroup. I stayed with Nelson a couple of times when he took off, but more often watched him disappear ahead. I can ride fast or I can ride far, but riding far and fast isn’t working too well for me.

All of us managed to get bonus miles. We missed a turn early for a half mile of bonus distance. Then, leaving Crandall, Steve set a brisk pace and Bryan fell back a bit. Nelson stayed back with him while the rest of us went on ahead. We missed a turn onto FM148 at mile 85 and were rewarded with 2 1/2 more bonus miles. Nelson and Bryan made this turn, so were ahead of us. But they missed a turn in Terrell at mile 95, and we were very surprised when they weren’t already at the control in Poetry when we reached it.

In spite of some harrowing traffic at times, it was more great riding fun with friends. It was 5:34 pm when we reached the start/finish, and was almost dark. I need to remember to take my light for all these late fall/winter rides, even when I think I won’t need it. We had less than 8 hours of riding time, but over two hours in controls (CHOP! CHOP!) made us finish later than I expected. My total miles were 129.1. I was a lot more tired than I should have been after a 10 hour 200k. Either the route is tougher than I thought, or the occasional sprinting turned me into a tired camper.

We finished up by joining Paul and Terrie for a good meal at Luigi’s Italian Cafe. Thanks, everyone, I had a great time!

This morning, a day after doing the dart from Lantana Lodge at Lake Ray Roberts, I rode the Cupcake permanent that starts at the same place. I never did hear how many riders showed up for the ride, but it looked like a great turnout. We rolled out at 8:00 am. With John Schlitter in their midst, I knew the fast riders in LSR would be hammering on this ride. On my best day, I would do well to hang with this bunch for a few miles, and while that might have been fun, there was no way I was going to do it after having already ridden a century the day before. Having never done back to back centuries, I knew that just completing this ride would be all the challenge I needed. Ray took off and joined the fast crew, but Steve, Peggy, Mark and I took off at our own pace, and the lead group was out of sight within a few miles.

Like our dart route the day before, this ride went through Tioga to Howe for the first control, then on to Tom Bean. But we didn’t stop in Tom Bean this time. Before we reached Howe, though, Ray had stopped and waited for us. As I suspected, the lead group was holding a race-like pace. Shortly past Tom Bean, we heard those words that all randonneurs love: “BONUS MILES!” We missed a turn to stay on FM2729, and ended up on SH11 instead. A mile out of town, I saw the sign that only said SH11, but it never registered that we had gone astray until Mark sprinted up beside me and said his gps had been telling him to turn around for a couple of miles. As soon as he said that, I thought of the sign I had just seen, and realized he was right. I yelled at Steve ahead to get him to stop, and we turned around. Sure enough, we found the correct turn about two miles back, and tallied 4.5 bonus miles for our trouble. Somewhere around this point, the wind really started picking up out of the south.

After heading north on FM2729, we soon ended up on some tiny curving roads with short, but steep and challenging hills, before arriving at Bells for our next control. From there, it was mostly west, on more small and hilly roads. One short, steep hill, on which Ray had chain issues, was so tough I was unsure whether I was going to be able to climb it, right to the point where I finally reached the top. I had shut off my gps at the last control, and forgot to hit the start button again, so was disappointed that I had no data on this little hill. This part of the ride would be challenging, even if I hadn’t ridden a century the day before.

As we kept heading west, the wind seemed to be in our face, and Steve and I mentioned that it now felt more west than south. By the time we stopped at our next control in Sherman, the flags in front of this control told us the wind was now coming from the west-northwest. I won’t mention exactly what happened, but it was at this control where I learned how to totally mortify Steve, Peggy, and Ray in a Jack in the Box restaurant. I should remember this technique, as it may come in handy later.

As we left the control, we noticed the wind was now blowing straight out of the north, and had really picked up. We were ready to turn south for that great tailwind, but we had more miles of west riding to complete first. There are some great views of valleys, hills, and countryside in this part of the ride, and it was at this point were I decided, challenging hills and all, I really like this route. Somewhere shortly before the next control in Collinsville, though, I really started to feel like I was hitting the wall, and in Collinsville, I noticed that we all looked pretty exhausted.

Mark had fallen back, and arrived at the Collinsville control just as we were about to leave, and with Schlitter have been waiting for hours for Steve and Peggy, we figured we should press on. This stretch down US377 is mostly downhill, and with a now howling wind at our backs, we were back in Pilot Point in a very short time. As soon as we turned west to head back toward Lake Ray Roberts, though, we were stopped at a railroad crossing while a slow train took its time. As we rode the park road approaching Lantana Lodge, I kept waiting for Steve and Peggy to come speeding past me, but they never did. It turned out, Paggy had gotten stung by a bee on the side of her forehead, just before the end of the ride. I hope that sting’s not too bad today, Peggy.

With our bonus miles, I ended up with just short of 109 miles, and my first back to back centuries had been completed. A tired camper, I headed straight for home. This was a fun route, and riding it with Steve, Peggy, Ray, and Mark really made it enjoyable. Thanks, y’all!

Recumbents at the start.

This was a fun and unique event. Saturday, Steve, Greg, Nelson, Ray, and I rode as a team in this event, and called our team Dart Vader. As opposed to a brevet, where you can ride pretty much any speed you want (as long as you maintain over a 9 and a half mile per hour average), and choose whether you ride with a group or not, on a dart, you ride the entire course with your team, and must use close to the entire designated time. Since the 12 hour time limit is more than we would ordinarily use to ride the 184k in the event, the main concern is just making sure the entire team can finish.

Nelson put together our course for the event. We, along with all the dart teams, started at the Lantana Lodge, which is east of Pilot Point, at Jordan Park at Lake Ray Roberts. Scheduled to start the ride at 7:00 am, we were late getting started, but we didn’t worry too much about that, since it was before daylight, in the lower 40’s temperature-wise, and we had plenty of hours to complete the ride.

We rode to Pilot Point, then north on US377, then turned east at Tioga. My fingers got pretty cold these first miles, in spite of the fact that I had on glove liners under my fingerless gloves. I guess it’s getting to be that time of year. There were a couple of rough spots, but these roads were mostly smooth, small, low traffic roads. At our first control in Howe, Shellene and Sharon and all from George’s dart team stopped and said hi. We also saw them at the next control in Tom Bean. They were headed north from there, though, while we turned south. I had never ridden the stretch from Howe to Tom Bean, and a couple of the hills were tougher than I would have thought could be found in this area.

The next stop was in Blue Ridge. Since it was looking like we’d be coming in way too early, we took time to eat lunch there. I downed a grilled chicken swiss sandwich that was very good. From there, we turned west. It had warmed, turning into a beautiful day without much wind by this time. When we turned south near Melissa, Nelson mentioned that these roads were the only part of the route he had never ridden before. We soon found out why, as we ended up on a three mile stretch of gravel road. I rode it slowly, keeping one foot unclipped half the time. Greg was looking like he enjoyed the stretch, though, especially when the truck and trailer passed, leaving a cloud of dust.

The remaining roads were mostly larger roads, but made of the new rough chipseal this part of the state is so known for. We made our last stop in Celina. Brenda’s team stopped there shortly after we did. It sounded like they were having a fun time just like us, although they had had a chain issue. We had no mechanicals on the ride. We rode back to Pilot Point, finally getting on smoother pavement again as we headed for Jordan Park. I ended up with just over 115 miles.

The dart riders, as well lots of LSR folks staying the night at Lantana Lodge for a permanent the next day, gathered for dinner at the lodge restaurant, and John Schiltter joined us. The food was very good, lots of stories were told, and it was a fitting end to a very fun day. Thanks, Nelson, for creating this route for us. And thanks to all my teammates for joining me on the ride. It was a different kind of ride, and great fun riding with these guys.

Steve, Ray, and I rode Shellene Foster’s 153k Quinlan Loop permanent today. I was ready for an easy weekend ride. It seems funny to consider a 100 mile ride an easy ride, but I hadn’t had a weekend go by without at least 120 miles of riding since mid-September. So, when Steve invited me to join him on this ride, it seemed like a good idea.

This ride starts in Wylie, heads east through Lavon and Caddo Mills, then near the north end of Lake Tawakoni, loops south to Quinlan, then back through Caddo Mills and Lavon. I can say with some certainty that it will never be one of my favorite routes. It has too much really rough chipseal, too much traffic, and too many high speed roads with no shoulders. I haven’t been passed close by vehicles this many times on one ride in quite a while.

In spite of that, today was a really fun day. It was cool enough this morning that Steve, Ray, and I all started out wearing arm warmers. I really felt like I had lead in my legs the first few miles. I didn’t know why at the time, but looking at my Garmin graph, I can see that the first 20 miles were very uphill. It’s a really flat route overall, but you wouldn’t know it by that first 20 miles. And we were going against the wind most of that stretch, too. After we stopped at the first control in Caddo Mills, I started to feel like I had my legs working again.

That’s not to say I could keep up with Ray and Steve when they decided to pick up the pace. We kind of alternated between an easy pace and brisk pace. During the stretches where the traffic was less and we could actually have a conversation while we rode, we tended to slow down. We had no particular finishing time in mind, and we took our time at the controls.

The roads near the north end of Lake Tawakoni were quiet and very scenic, but too much of the rest of the ride, I was watching traffic too much to enjoy the scenery. When we weren’t going against the north wind, this was truly a beautiful day to be riding. We handled the busy parts of the route with no problems, and finished up in 8 hours even. With some turns we missed early in the ride, we ended up with 100 miles even (after circling the block a couple of times at the end to make it an even century), rather than the advertised 95 miles. My on the bike average was 16.5 mph, which figures to 6 hours of actual riding time, so we definitely spent a generous amount of time in the controls. Total climbing for the route was just 1833 feet. I haven’t ridden a 100 mile route that flat since……… you guessed it, HHH, which only had 1600 feet of climbing.

After the ride, we had some excellent Mexican food at the Dos Charros restaurant in Wylie, and called it a day. Thanks, Steve and Ray, I had a great time today!

It was a strange sight on the Joe Pool dam yesterday evening as Rose snapped these photos of Mark on my Roadster. It was just a quick trial just before dark, with more wobbling than riding. We need to let Mark try some less extreme bikes like my Corsa, Paul’s X-Stream, and Ray’s V-3.

We may yet bring him around to the dork …………. errr, I mean dark side.

Paul did this 300K in less than 12 hours, but the rest of the local recumbent group (I mention local because there was a Corsa and Tour Easy from New Orleans – I only saw them at the first couple of controls and talked briefly with them early in the ride) had no intention of turning this ride into a race. Greg was on the heavy and not-so-aerodynamic V-Rex, and had said that the only way he could ride with us was if we kept a reasonable pace, and that was already what Steve, Peggy, and I had planned, this being our first 300k.

I did want to try and reach the last control before the end, Dixie’s Little Stop at mile 157, by 7:00 pm. This place is known for its good food, and I figured after a longer break than usual, and rigging up all the lights, we would be ready for the last stretch in the dark.

Shortly after leaving Italy, this route turns onto FM667 which is new chipseal. There are rollers here, but no really tough hills, and the wind hadn’t really started blowing yet. Five miles before the first control at Dawson, this route turns onto SH31. This is a short break from the chipseal, but with the route’s new detour, it stays on SH31 all the way to Hubbard, and the shoulder past Dawson is ……… you guessed it, rough chipseal.

At Hubbard, the route turns southeast on SH171. This highway shoulder is still rough chipseal; the new detour seems to have added even more chipseal to the route. The southeast wind really started to pick up while we were on this road. There are also a couple of pretty tough hills on it. We had passed an upright paceline on the flatter part of this highway, but every bicycle on the planet passed me on that second hill, I think.

We pulled into the next control in Mexia at mile 57. We spent more time at this control than I intended, but everyone seemed a bit tired from the chipseal and wind. It was at this point that I discovered that inhaling part of a Clif bar doesn’t work very well. I thought I was going to choke to death on the spot. From Mexia, the 300k route travels east to Teague on RR1365. This is a tiny road, but it’s well worn chipseal that’s not as rough as what we’d been on, and there are so many tall trees that the wind doesn’t bother you as much, either. At the control in Teague, we were joined by Ken from Colorado. He had made a wrong turn for a couple of bonus miles, and was doing the 300k like us, so we added one more to the group for the rest of the ride.

We headed south out of Teague on FM80, bound for Jewett, 27 miles to the south. It’s an almost steady gradual incline from Teague to Jewett, and with the south wind really blowing now, this stretch was brutal. Greg fell back, and thinking that he was worn out from going against the wind on his heavier bike, I dropped back to pull him. It turned out it was just severe foot pain that was slowing him down. The 300k route turns around at Jewett, and we saw Paul going the other way about 6 miles before we reached Jewett.

We took a nice long break in Jewett, and as we went to leave, Mark Metcalfe made a quick stop at the store. He was doing the 600k, which goes another 21 miles past Jewett, then turns around, so while we had 97 miles at this point, he had 140 miles already! And he was doing it by himself; no one else had stayed with him.

Headed north out of Jewett, we were flying. A steady slight downhill and a tailwind was just what the doctor ordered. We dropped Ken. Even pedaling at a very easy recovery pace, there’s just no way an upright could stay with us on this stretch. The next control stop was at mile 127 in Groesbeck. Ken pulled in a few minutes behind us. Peggy told Ken she had told us all she felt bad about dropping him. Steve pointed out that she never stopped pedaling while she was saying that.

For the second stop in a row, I pulled my shoes off. That chipseal definitely takes a toll on feet, and my body was telling me that it had already done a 200k, it was time to drive home. I knew that pedaling another 68 miles was going to be a chore.

We left Groesbeck and were back on more familiar roads. The remainder of the route is part of the 200k which I have done several times. The roads are smoother on this stretch, too. It has some rolling hills, but nothing too tough. We arrived at Dixie’s at exactly 7:00 pm. Everyone was tired, but in good spirits. I usually just eat sports bars, Payday candy bars, and fruit on these rides, but on a 300k, something more substantial seemed necessary. About 25 miles before Dixie’s, I started thinking about a cheeseburger, and by the time we arrived, I was ready to order mine. It must have seemed like a good idea, because everyone else ordered one, too.

We took our time at Dixie’s, rigged lights and reflective devices, and took off for the final 38 miles in the dark. With 5 bikes, the road was very well lit. This stretch has lots of rolling hills, and I took the lead. I out-coast everyone on the downhills, and am the slowest on the uphills, so up front seemed to be a logical place for me in this stretch, so I wasn’t constantly passing or being passed. It occurred to me that this turned out to be a great time for a 300k. It didn’t get too hot during the day, and it wasn’t too cold now that it was dark. It was truly great riding weather. We made a quick stop at a closed store in Mertens, about 11 miles from the finish. Greg sat massaging his feet as he had a conversation with a toad. I don’t think the toad was too happy that Greg had scared off all his bugs.

On US77, about 4 miles from the finish, Steve zoomed by me to claim the Italy city limit sign, then Peggy came flying by, too. Just like I had good sense, I sped up for the final 4 miles, too. I finished at 10:17, with a total time of 15:17. I had an on the bike average of 16.3 mph. With the route detour, the total miles were 195.6, so after getting our brevet cards signed, Steve, Peggy, Ken, and I decided to get back on the bike and ride 5 more miles to claim our first double century.

My first 300k and first double century, on the same day, and with good friends, I was a tired but happy camper. Thanks, Steve, Peggy, Greg, and Ken. It was a special day.

Peggy and I.

Steve and Peggy at Dawson.

Greg, Peggy, me, and Steve.