rbent Forum https://rbentonline.org/YaBB.pl General Category >> Ride Reports >> Velo Venus 100k Permanent https://rbentonline.org/YaBB.pl?num=1226799370 Message started by Bud_Bent on Nov 15th, 2008, 7:36pm

Title: Velo Venus 100k Permanent Post by Bud_Bent on Nov 15th, 2008, 7:36pm 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! Oh, and if I'm Fartacus, I'm dubbing Steve: Gassius.

Title: Re: Velo Venus 100k Permanent Post by Strada177 on Nov 15th, 2008, 8:04pm Bud_Bent wrote: 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! Oh, and if I'm Fartacus, I'm dubbing Steve: Gassius. Bud ,as always I truly enjoyed riding with you ,Greg ,& Ray. What a group?!  We have FUN & that's what's all about to me. I would ride anywhere/anytime with you guys(and we've ridden a lot of places together). As Bud can attest ,I called him on Friday night(when the winds were steady at 25+mph & gusting to 45+ mph) to get his opinion on whether we should ride on Saturday(today). Like the true dopes that we are ,we showed up at the McDonald's in Arlington ready to ride between 6:50-7:05am. The ride started sharply at 7:30am(in true Randonneuring fashion). Bud made a very interesting & smart point ,LEAVE YOUR LAYERED CLOTHING ON BECAUSE WE WILL BE RIDING BACK INTO THE N/W WIND SOON.  Sure enough ,as we were riding south(to Venus) with the tailwind & the morning sun , we all thought about shedding layers of clothing. However ,at the control in Venus ,Bud's words proved to be dead-on. To say the wind was HOWLING ,would be an obvious understatement!  This is a good route in my opinion. The roads are good(with a few exceptions of some chip/seal on the service roads of 287 & few county roads that have some pot holes). But for a change ,we were not only busy ,high traffic roads(there were a few semi-busy roads, but we were not on these roads that long). I would recommend this route. Bud rode strong as usual. As did Greg(on his new pretty looking Car-bent),& Ray(who's always strong). I just liking riding with you guys. No mechanicals/crashes. That's always a bonus. Speaking of bonus ,what would a rando ride be without bonus miles. We're finally starting to see that 8 pairs of eyes are better than 2. After the morning fau pax, there were no bonus miles. GOOD JOB!! The meal at Boston Market hit the spot.  Ummm...good stuff. Thanks to everyone for a good day. I will mail the permanent cards to Jerry Monday. Hail Fartacus!

Title: Re: Velo Venus 100k Permanent Post by evblazer on Nov 15th, 2008, 8:15pm Glad to hear y'all had a good ride this morning. I was thinking about y'all when I was commuting home last night into that nice headwind we had where I had a pretty respectable 10mph average which was pretty good with all the 7mph stretches :o Even when I went out today for a short ride that wind was like riding into a wall heading north at times.

Title: Re: Velo Venus 100k Permanent Post by Strada177 on Nov 15th, 2008, 8:53pm evblazer wrote: Glad to hear y'all had a good ride this morning. I was thinking about y'all when I was commuting home last night into that nice headwind we had where I had a pretty respectable 10mph average which was pretty good with all the 7mph stretches :o Even when I went out today for a short ride that wind was like riding into a wall heading north at times. EV ,this would have been good route to join us on. Yes ,the wind was like riding into a wall...pretty much from Venus back to Arlington.

Title: Re: Velo Venus 100k Permanent Post by aikigreg on Nov 15th, 2008, 11:08pm Without a doubt this was one of the toughest rides I've done as far as general conditions.  A few harrowing moments with the wind gusts to be sure, but I wouldn't have missed this day with my pals for anything, and the carbent performed marvelously. Best part of the day was us plain old stone cold owning 2 roadies.  Everyone rode very strong today, but the wind got the better of all of us for sure!  Thanks for the great ride guys!

Title: Re: Velo Venus 100k Permanent Post by bikerteam on Nov 16th, 2008, 11:50am Thanks guys, it was a great ride.  From the day I met Angie, the mantra is THE WIND IS YOUR FRIEND.  When the wind gets ta' blowin' like it did yesterday, and as I told Steve about half way through, think "happy spot", think "beach".  It didn't work!  I regress back to the ride Nelson, Dennis, Jeremy and I did a few years ago, OK is OK.  Where we literally hit a wall of sand blowing as much as 60mph. We thought it was a smoke cloud, but as soon as we hit that wall, it pelted/blasted us.  Nothing compares to that epic ride.  It ruiner both Nelson and Dennis' bikes (ie, shifter mechanism, etc.). So while we certainly had wind yesterday, it was tolerable.  :o I had given up carrying a cue sheet since "wrong way ray" always gets the group lost.  After today, I'm carrying a cue sheet.  Not only did we have ~6 bonus miles at the very beginning, we had at least 4 or 5 wong turns in the 6 bonus miles.  Comical yes, in the respect as it was at the beginning when we had a tail wind. Oh, one more thing.  According to my Garmin data, my avg. speed was 15.5, and average heart rate was 146. That's certainly indicative of the winds.  And I stopped my Garmin whenever we took a wrong turn.  So Steve will have to respond with his total ride stats.

Title: Re: Velo Venus 100k Permanent Post by Mrs Strada on Nov 16th, 2008, 2:54pm I missed riding with you guys yesterday :'(. I thought of you all day long .I only got an hour on the trainer in the garage I didn't have any wind ;). to deal with. That is until Steve got Home. Glad you had a good ride.                                                                                     Mrs Strada

Title: Re: Velo Venus 100k Permanent Post by Bud_Bent on Nov 16th, 2008, 5:00pm Mrs Strada wrote: I didn't have any wind ;). to deal with. That is until Steve got Home. Hail Gassius!

Title: Re: Velo Venus 100k Permanent Post by Strada177 on Nov 16th, 2008, 6:05pm bikerteam wrote: Thanks guys, it was a great ride.  From the day I met Angie, the mantra is THE WIND IS YOUR FRIEND.  When the wind gets ta' blowin' like it did yesterday, and as I told Steve about half way through, think "happy spot", think "beach".  It didn't work!  I regress back to the ride Nelson, Dennis, Jeremy and I did a few years ago, OK is OK.  Where we literally hit a wall of sand blowing as much as 60mph. We thought it was a smoke cloud, but as soon as we hit that wall, it pelted/blasted us.  Nothing compares to that epic ride.  It ruiner both Nelson and Dennis' bikes (ie, shifter mechanism, etc.). So while we certainly had wind yesterday, it was tolerable.  :o I had given up carrying a cue sheet since "wrong way ray" always gets the group lost.  After today, I'm carrying a cue sheet.  Not only did we have ~6 bonus miles at the very beginning, we had at least 4 or 5 wong turns in the 6 bonus miles.  Comical yes, in the respect as it was at the beginning when we had a tail wind. Oh, one more thing.  According to my Garmin data, my avg. speed was 15.5, and average heart rate was 146. That's certainly indicative of the winds.  And I stopped my Garmin whenever we took a wrong turn.  So Steve will have to respond with his total ride stats.   Ray ,my avg. speed was 15.5 mph. Max H/R-179 ,avg-141. Kcal-3,397.  My total mileage was 74.74. I worked hard for that 15.5 mph avg(thanks to mother nature).

Title: Re: Velo Venus 100k Permanent Post by aikigreg on Nov 16th, 2008, 6:25pm I hate riding in the cold.  Every single joint sweels up.  Even my toes were swollen and tiff and wouldn't flex last night.  I am somewhat better today though.   I had 74.65 miles, 15.2 average.  max speed 34 mph (chasing Steve down to Venus). Steve, I know based on the racing I've done that I'm a pretty good mid distance sprinter, and you held me off the whole way to Venus.  You really need to be the next Team Bacchetta member.  Do I have anyone to second the motion?  And Peggy as a Lady B too, while I'm at it.

Title: Re: Velo Venus 100k Permanent Post by Strada177 on Nov 16th, 2008, 7:56pm aikigreg wrote: I hate riding in the cold.  Every single joint sweels up.  Even my toes were swollen and tiff and wouldn't flex last night.  I am somewhat better today though.   I had 74.65 miles, 15.2 average.  max speed 34 mph (chasing Steve down to Venus). Steve, I know based on the racing I've done that I'm a pretty good mid distance sprinter, and you held me off the whole way to Venus.  You really need to be the next Team Bacchetta member.  Do I have anyone to second the motion?  And Peggy as a Lady B too, while I'm at it. Greg ,thanks for the kind words. I really appreciate the encouragement you ,Ray ,Bud ,Peggy ,Nelson & everyone has given me. You know ,I just ride. Some days are better than other days. I was sincere when I wrote that I just enjoy riding with you guys. Having fun is what it's all about. Sorry to hear about the feet. Rest those bad boys. I too despise riding in the cold. I would take a 100+ degree day any day.

Title: Re: Velo Venus 100k Permanent Post by aikigreg on Nov 16th, 2008, 9:19pm the feet are fine - I still can't make a fist, though....and I agree.  I'd take a 107 degree 300k again this weekend :)

Title: Re: Velo Venus 100k Permanent Post by Bud_Bent on Nov 16th, 2008, 10:53pm Yes, it was a reminder of why I do more 40 and 50 mile rides in the winter than really long rides, and just start later in the day. I'm glad we weren't battling it for 200k, yesterday. I'm also reminded that riding against the wind is like climbing, and I suck at both. I'm working on it, though.

Title: Re: Velo Venus 100k Permanent Post by Strada177 on Nov 17th, 2008, 12:10am Bud_Bent wrote: Yes, it was a reminder of why I do more 40 and 50 mile rides in the winter than really long rides, and just start later in the day. I'm glad we weren't battling it for 200k, yesterday. I'm also reminded that riding against the wind is like climbing, and I suck at both. I'm working on it, though. Says the man that always seems to blow past me on the downhills.

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