bikerteam
Five Star Member
Exceed Your Limitations
Posts: 630
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Yesterday was another epic ride. Greg, Steve, Bud and I had a fun time together, despite the road conditions. The four of started towards the back of a pack of about 30 riders. The pace was pretty fast, 20mph plus. Greg pretty quickly worked his way to the middle of the pack. About miles 5, as we finished a pretty good climb, Steve and I made our way to the front. As we descended, we broke off the front. Several miles later we catch a lone rider, a very fast female Tri gal. We exchange a few words, and Steve and I take off again. A short while later Greg catches us. We ride for only a few miles more, then wait for Bud. While the pack passes us, Bud is right there with them, riding strong. At mile 30 (?) we're at Venus. Everyone else seemed to break out for the 70 miles, while the four of us rode the 100. We made it to Maypearl pretty quick, then hit some rough patches of road on our way to Waxahachie, our half way point. Bud leads us out of Waxahachie at a fast pace. Bud would slow only slightly on the uphills, but come screaming past us on the descents. Within 4-5 miles we turn onto the road from (or to) hell. At one spot, probably around mile 65, it reminded us of Nelson's story about being in Alabama and coming across the moonshiners. Even the dogs were looking at us as if they had never seen a human before. That's when Greg started expelling the most horrible smelling, well, you can guess.... Up and down we go, and every time we go down, at the bottom is an old wooden bridge made out of railroad ties. We cross very slowly, trying to not get stuck in the seams between the ties. At mile 75, and as we're descending a hill about 30mph, with Steve just ahead of me, and Greg directly behind me, Steve makes a quick right turn. I noticed the loose looking gravel, but assumed it was glued to tar. WRONG. I went down fast, and hard. All I remember is hearing a squeeling behind me thinking Greg is about to land on top of me. All of a sudden Greg and Steve are pulling the V3 off of me, and trying to pull me up. I pick some pebbles out of my knee and shorts, then check over the V3. My knee had a few cuts, but didn't look too bad. That road had gravel at least 1/2" thick, and we weren't about to ride on it. We took a detour, and thankfully Greg made a good guess and while we rode about 10-15 miles on unfamiliar roads, guessing what way to turn, we made our way to Alvarado at a fast pace. From there is was an easy 10-15 miles back to Burleson. Wow, another epic adventure.... I get home and about to jump in the shower and I see a huge patch of road rash on my right leg and butt. It didn't hurt at all... My stats were 16.8 avg speed, with 3275 feet of climbing. If we didn't have to slow to a crawl at the bottom of practically every descent to snail crawl over the railroad tie bridges, our avg. speed would have been at least 1 mph faster. I got up this morning at 6am and felt pretty good. I asked Angie if she would mind if I did a recovery ride. I met the Texas Flyers, who are known as hammer heads. Honestly, we rode through Flower Mound towards Argyle, and at mile 15, I was at least 1/4 mile ahead. I turned where I thought they would go, but they kept straight. I waited for some slower rides that I know, and we eneded up makes a big loop around lake Grapevine. Got in another 50 miles today, at least 15 miles of anaerobic work.
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