I was glad the start temperature was ~42 instead of the anticipated ~32, it made for a much more pleasant start... Greg and I had decided to go off the front after 10 miles or so, but he and Ray started to do that almost immediately, so there we went. After 10 miles, we took a nature stop, and Peggy, Mark, and Linda caught up, but then Greg and I went off ahead after that, only seeing the others briefly at the Forestburg control for the rest of the day.
We had a nice tailwind all the way to Spanish Fort, which helped climb some of the hills we encountered... This route uses some of the Muenster rally, but apparently with lots MORE climbing... A few times, there was no shoulder, and traffic backed up behind us while we chugged up the incline at 8mph or so....
But also some very nice downhills -- there were at least a half dozen times we were coasting at 35 or greater, and once with a high of 44 for me... Very nice road surfaces, in general, by the way...!!! But even with the climbing involved, Greg and I had an almost 19 mph average by the time we got to the Fort.
THEN, you get to go west for a few miles, but eventually turn back south, into the wind, for the next ~60 miles... and encounter LOTS more hills, and a fairly steady 1% overall grade, since you're coming back up from the Red River basin... Nasty, nasty, nasty... And many times, you climb one hill, to immediately see another one looming in front of you a mile away. And all this, into a ~15 MPH wind...
Greg had mentioned that there were several 10% or better climbs... I believe it. I felt pretty good overall, keeping 10mph or better up even the nastiest of them... then, for the last 20+ miles after Forestburg, the backs of both of my legs started to revolt during climbs -- hamstrings, etc. trying to cramp up... But we pressed on, through a couple last nasty climbs into Bolivar and on to the finish. That first half average of almost 19 had dropped to 16.6 at the end... you do the math...
[Side note: did you folks find/use the water bottles we left for you at Forestburg?]
Our overall goal for the day was to get finished before dark, and we just made it, rolling in about 5:10 or so... but stopped out front to take a couple pictures with the big Texas flag before it got too dark, before getting our cards signed inside.
My left knee was hurting, and was really stiff with I got out of the car at home later... (but felt good enough this morning to do the GDB Sunday ride)
That's definitely the hardest 200K I've done to date, mostly due to the 2nd half -- constant uphill grade, hill after repeating hill, and the headwind all combined. And Greg actually seemed to feel stronger than me the last 10 miles - not sure where he found it!
Thanks for the company, and glad everybody finished safely. My pics are at:
http://s53.photobucket.com/albums/g73/flyinglazboy/SpanishFort/