I went to Cleburne yesterday to ride with the LSR folks.  They were having the 200K and 300K  Goatneck brevets which feature the Goatneck hill from the ride of the same name.  The courses are out and back, so you go down this particular hill on the way out and come up it at about the 180 mile mark on the 300K on the way back.  One nice thing about out and back courses is you get a preview of where all the hard spots are going to be, you just have to note your high speeds on the way out.  So I knew my hardest climb was going to be Dinosaur Hill, which occurs just outside Glen Rose near  the Dinosaur Park entrance.  I hit 44 mph on the way out, so based upon that and the fact the GPS said 11% I knew that was the actual steepest hill I would do.  However it is much shorter than Goatneck, which is 6-8% for at least about 3/4 mile.  Goatneck should have been named Bull horn hill or something similar yesterday though, as just off the road was a very large bull, just standing there.  Wow hope somebody gets him back within the fence line before a car hits him.  Never would I have imagined it would still be there on my way back 13 hours later!  He seemed a lot less calm, when I was coming back and didn’t seem to like me or the bike much, but fortunately didn’t come after me.
     After a good start I realized my legs were pretty dead, and ended up backing off quite a bit.  I covered 18.5 miles in the first hour, but only about 16 the 2nd.  After taking it easier and saying goodbye to the 200K’s at Bluffdale where they turned around I found myself one of the last people on the road.  After about 200K I think I was the last person on the road, but checking my time of about 9:30 I figured I wasn’t riding that slowly, everybody was just going fast!  I think some of them started to feel the heat though because I started to catch people taking long recuperations at the controls, and ended up finishing in 14:45 about the middle of the pack.  I was reasonably happy because I took an hour of my previous time on the same course back in March.
     One of the coolest things was seeing Mark Metcalf show up for the 200K and zooming past us all.  I don’t know about you but if I had just crossed the United States in 7 ½ days I might not be looking for more bike miles.  I’ve had the coolness of riding with several RAAM champions now!
 
Take Care,
Nelson.

   One other item of interest,  Mike and Nancy Meyers a very speedy tandem couple have gone bent!  Yesterday was there first brevet on a new Rans Seavo.  Nancy was having some neck issues, and the Rans got a big heads up from the comfort level, and I think they were surprised at the speed on such a hilly course and it being their first long ride.  Mike had some hot feet issues, and I wasn't much help because I have them something awful myself.  I verbally gave them this and some other sites, but I'll try to follow up with an email.  If anybody has some hints on the feet issue I'll pass them along.
 
Take Care,
Nelson.

Good report, Nelson. I'll look forward to seeing that Seavo (having never seen anything but photos of one).