I, along with a nice turnout of rbenters, rolled out of Cleburne with the masses at 7:32 this morning. I resisted the temptation of having so many rabbits to chase, and kept my pace pretty moderate on the first part of this ride. That's always the most crowded and dangerous part of a ride like this, plus I knew there were some tough hills later in the ride (and my struggles with hills this year are well documented), and I'm planning on doing a club ride tomorrow. So, a sane pace for this ride seemed to be the way to go.
 
There were no real problems with the mass rollout, and we were soon in the rolling hills. I had forgotten how difficult riding with huge numbers of upright bikes in rolling hills can be. They'd pass me on uphills, then surround and roadblock me when I'm ready to pass them all on the downhills.  
 
I only made two stops during the ride, both at the same rest stop, at an intersection we went through at miles 13.5 and 47. I can't testify how the other rest stops were manned, but this one was well stocked and had lots of friendly folks. When I carried my Camelbak in to refill it at mile 47, I immediately met a guy with a pitcher of ice water who promptly filled it. Now, that's service!
 
Twice, early in the ride, Steve had pulled over and waited for me to see how I was holding up against the hills. I repaid his kindness and concern by passing him while he was in a rest stop, and never letting him catch me again.
 
There were a couple of rough stretches of road on this ride (that short stretch of new chipseal was awful), but most of the roads seemed pretty good to me. Traffic control was outstanding. I never had to stop at all. The route was well marked, and every turn well staffed, too. The Paluxy and Brazos rivers, along with all the surrounding hills, make some great scenery on this route.
 
I was slow up several of the hills, but really didn't have any problems at all. Near the end of the ride, I was reminded that a good many riders aren't really prepared for a ride like this, as there seemed to be a bike under every shade tree, along with a rider either sitting down, or laid out. After riding up Goatneck Hill, at mile 50, I had an average speed of a little over 16 mph, but I felt good enough at that point, I put the hammer down a bit the rest of the way, reached 35 mph on several of the remaining downhills and held good speed on the next uphills, passed a lot of riders, and ended up with a 17.1 mph average.  
 
I enjoyed this ride a lot, and will definitely do it again. I finished with 69.5 miles, a 17.1 mph average, and 4:03 of riding time. I finished at 11:50, so both of my stops were pretty short. My gps showed 2800 feet of climbing.

WAHAHAHAAHAHA @ Bud.
 
The ride was good and bad as I told everyone at lunch.  I caught up to and passed the elad group, only to have them pull some POS tactics as well and stopping at a rest stop to let them go.  That's when the front derailleur went askew and ensured I'd only be able to use the big gear, and even then all the teeth ground on the end of the cage.  That significantly robbed me of stinking power  .  Especially when my legs got QUITE tired from not being able to relax at all by going down into the middle ring.
 
Question 1 - do you even NEED that bar on the end of the derailleur cage?
Question 2 - do they made a tab mounted derailleur with a longer cage?  Might help my small ring shifting issues.
 
My computer shows me at a 19.3 average, but my computer also shows almost a mile and a half less distance traveled than Bud's garmin.  running the numbers with 69.5 miles covered gives me 19.86 miles per hour.  Probably would have been 21 with working equipment.  Not bad considering I don't ride the tica much.  I really need to ride it more as we move towards the TTTT.
 
Lunch at Leach's BBQ was good - sorry you missed it Mark L!  Was good to chat with DJ, Peggy, Steve, Brad and Mark H.  I guess Bud was ok too.
 
Speaking of Brad, I have the distinct feeling that as soon as he learnes how to ride that baron I'm totally screwed.  I'm going to have to learn how to play second bananna.  Or seriously up my game.  Nice ride, Brad!

To guage my TTTT fitness I participated in the 30 mile race.  Did any of you see the "leader board" at the start/finish line?  I got 2nd place, behind an A&M college racer.  The closest person behind me finished over 8 minutes later!  I went through the start/finish line sprinting at 28mph, and rode about 1/2 mile gliding to a stop, then turning around and heading back to the start finish line.  When I circled back to the start/finish the organizers wanted my name, etc...  They asked me my time, so all I had is what my computer showed, which was easily 3-4 minutes additional, and a slow down of avg. speed.  
 
My time for the 30 miles was 1:23 (probably closer to 1:20) with an avg speed of 21.8. That doesn't calculate correctly, but alas... I'm happy with the time and my 2nd place finish.  What was also cool was that there was a picture taking ceremony with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place riders on a make-shift podium while people gathered around and a photographer took pictures and asked us for our bio....  
 
My 23 year old daughter Kandis, who rode in her first organized ride today, was older than the 1st, and 3rd place finisher. The best reward of all was to see my daughter in absolute delight.  She kept saying how she can't believe her dad, at 50 can whup up on the college boys. I told her it wasn't me, it's the bike  

Hello All,
 
Goatneck is the best supported ride IMHO. Just something about having a  pretty smiling face pour you a cup of ice water!  Traffic control is the best. I did the 41 miler. For me this is the most demanding ride I do. You guys slay me with your numbers. It is a great group of bents we have here in north Texas! Really strong. My all time best average with two complete lungs was 14.7. I didn't feel too bad because I passed as many as passed me all along the road. I just love that long hill. At one point I was coasting at 33 with a DF hammering away to catch me. I was not even pedalling and pulling away. So coool. Course he ground me do dust on the upside. I had my moment in the sun!! . I will do this again next year for sure.
 
RichardC

Brad, you bought a Baron and rode Goatneck the next day on it???   Good lord...  too funny, man!!!
 
Sounds like a good rally from many perspectives, and congrats to Ray!!!

I enjoyed this ride also. What impressed me the most was the lack of car/truck traffic - less than any ride that I've been on in the metro area. There were plenty of hills but none were a big challenge. The steepest is only 5%. I ended up with 3183 ft. of climbing per my GPS. For comparison: Muenster had 3012 ft. and Aledo had 4054 ft. I managed to hit 41 on one of the downhills but EV Blazer sailed on by going even faster. It was good to see so many bents at a hilly ride - we're not afraid of no stinking hills.
 
Ken

I feel so lucky to ride with such a great group of men and lady rbenters. Thanks again to EV Blazer for ride in with me the last 15 miles or so. I had a hard time Saturday with the heat (but mostly it was my hydration or lack of). My MPH average was not to bad, I had to sprint the last 2 or so miles to get my 17 MPH average. I don't mind the speed so much, I did not like not feeling strong through out the ride. It was not the hills, it was not that I went out to fast, just not one of my better rides. Still all in all a great day with great people.
                                                              Mrs. Strada
 
 
                                         

Geash everytime I have a good ride and keep up with folks they are either riding through mud and having the worst ride of their life or they are experiencing heat exhaustion.  
I kid I kid    
 
It was nice being able to ride in the last few miles with another bent to keep pace with. I probably would have been going much slower if I didn't keep seeing a bent off somewhere in the distance when I was in those little hills. I got into the starting line late so I was waaaay in back and had to slowly make my way up which probably saved me as I didn't try and chase down people early and blow my legs.
 
I really really wish I didn't leave my computer at home though. Now at least I know I went at least 41 but with the light traffic and really spread out riders I could really fly down those hills. It is somewhat of a curse though. Gravity really yanks me down those hills fast but it drags me to a halt when I'm trying to go up anything with any real incline for very long. My only choice is to spin and I do that well but it is slow going.