Yes, the rain forecast didn't look too promising, and I figured we would get drenched in the 2nd half as the front continued to move south and east...  but with an overcast sky and cooler temps, I figured it was worth a shot, since I hadn't done a single 200K this year so far!!  Sadly, I didn't take the camera with me this time, anticipating we would get pretty wet...  and I missed some good shots...
 
Anticipating rain, I spent a while last night putting my fenders on the prototype I'm riding, and determined that they didn't thread the rear bolt holes for the fender struts -- so I put nuts on the inside to secure things, went up and down the street a bit, and pronounced all good for the morning.
 
We took off, and about a half mile down the road, I shifted into the 11T in back, and my chain locked up.  Sure enough, not enough clearance for a nut to be on the inside of the rear dropout!!!  So with Bud's help, I removed the bolt/nut and tie-wrapped the strut in place, and all was well.  (Note:  I was the ONLY bike with fenders... these LSR people just don't CARE if they get soaked or not...  Me, I was trying to keep my seatpad dry, to avoid carrying another 10 pounds of water.)  The group had paused a couple miles up, so we caught up quickly, and basically, everybody (except Gary and Dan off the front) rode together at about 16-17 to the 1st control in Cleburne, and rode from there at 20-21 all the way to the 65 mile control in Itasca.  We could tell we were south of the front, because it was getting a bit toasty, and we were dealing with a southwest wind most of the way there.
 
While we were at the Itasca stop, a bunch of the riders were sitting on the "front stoop" of the store, in the shade, downing their snacks and drinks....  when out of the store comes a ~3-yr-old and his Mom, and the kid proceeds to just plop himself down beside everybody and have a sit down...  it was pretty funny...   And there was a teenager behind the counter at the store -- he asked how far we were going, and I said "65 miles down, another 60 to go!"  His eyes got real wide, and he just shook his head, saying "Shoot....  ain't no way...."  
 
Leaving Itasca, you quickly come upon what's being called "Orphan Hill" -- but after this, it was supposedly mostly downhill and rollers for the next ~15 miles to the next stop in Maypearl.  Orphan Hill has a ~1/2 mile incline approaching it, then it probably hits 6% plus for the next half mile or more.  I was the second one up the main hill, feeling good and able to hold ~10mph without too much problem, about 25 yards behind Gary Gottlieb -- and once we hit the top and commenced the more downhill section, I suddenly decided to treat it like a TTTT run all the way to Maypearl, leaving Gary and everybody else behind.  And yes, it's VERY much like the TTTT course backside, with some very nice downhills/flats, and some challenging rollers.   Unfortunately, about 2 miles before Maypearl, I started to run outta gas, and could see Gary and somebody else gaining on me (which turned out to be Bud, to my surprise!), but I "held them off" to the control stop.  But apparently, everybody ELSE was chasing THEM, too   , because it was less than 5 minutes before the entire gang was at the control -- and it was HOT.  At this point (Mile 81), I decided that what I had just done was pretty stupid, considering we still had 40+ miles to go....
 
Sure enough, we headed out all together after the break, starting to do some climbing to Alvarado, and within a mile I found the tank empty...    as did Bud, to a certain extent...  so we two just agreed to press on at our own pace, which was about 12 to 14 into the now-northwest wind, and climbing hills at about 8, as the others probably all kept cranking at 18 or so.  I really bonked, but took a few Sportlegs and stuff to try to recover a bit.  Over the next 20 miles to the Alvarado control, my overall averaged dropped from 17.5 to 16...  we were hurting, and it was still hot.  But, we were headed back north, and had about half sun and half cloud cover, playing with the edges of the front.
 
[Side note -- Terrie was flying to New Mexico today, to attend a seminar in Taos...  she texted me in the middle of our death march section, saying "Drinking Margaritas by the poooooool -- Yummy!"    I simply texted back "MILE 95..."   ]
 
The rest of the gang was still at Alvarado when we got there, as was Mark Metcalf, who earlier had gone off the front solo after about 50 miles.  We were surprised to hear Mark say he was DNF'ing, but he apparently wasn't feeling well, and had called his wife to pick him up.  So Bud and I took our time, not really recovered yet, and let the main group go, but headed out about 10 minutes later for the last 20 mile stretch.
 
The wind was picking up out of the north, but the cloud cover was increasing, so while we didn't enjoy the headwinds, we DEFINITELY enjoyed the cooler temperatures.  Within a half hour or so, both of us had mostly gotten our second wind, and were back cruising at 16 to 20, though still tired.  We probably finished about 30 minutes behind the main group, and my computer showed an average of just over 16 for the day.  And really, we never got ANY signficant rain the entire ride, even in the second half.  So it was a good choice to go ride... and we were VERY thankful for the cooler temps.
 
Bud, I appreciate you hanging back for the last 40 -- I was really cooked after that silliness to Maypearl!!!  But may I say that the Peachy Keene is an EXCELLENT 200K route - good roads, minimal chipseal, and not much traffic.  There are a couple of tricky turns one could miss, but, Well Designed, Sir!!!    
 

Quote from Kwijybow on Jul 5^th, 2009, 8:36pm:

 
They certainly have their purposes...  however, the front fender has a ~8" long section unsupported past the frame attachment tab, and when I would hit ~20mph or so, or into a heavy wind, it would vibrate back and forth like crazy...  I even had it installed backwards for better forward coverage, but it acts the same when installed normally.  When I got home and took the fenders off, it looks like the edges of the fenders had been contacting the tire sidewalls whenever they vibrated like that, because the sidewalls were discolored with whitish dust (ghosts of fender use past, from the inside of the fender.).  If that's the case, I'm glad I didn't blow out a sidewall!!!!  
 

 
Any ideas on how to eliminate this "wagging"??

The graph below shows the elevation profile for Peachy Keene. The second highest point of the ride is the top of Orphan Hill at mile 70, then the lowest point is the Maypearl control at mile 81. That's why I was able to come from a half mile behind everyone to pass everyone except Paul and Gary on that stretch.
 
You can also see that the next 20 miles from Maypearl at mile 81 to Alvarado at mile 101 is a lot of elevation gain, even though there aren't any big hills. It's not a fun stretch if you're going against a wind and just blew yourself up on the last stretch.
 
Gary was riding a 200k for the third day in a row, and still had the strength to chase Paul downhill all the way from Orphan Hill to Maypearl on an upright. There are some strong riders in LSR.
 

Quote from FlyingLaZBoy on Jul 7^th, 2009, 7:46am:

 
 
Yeah, but you add a head/tail wind to that and even that becomes like a mountain in effort.

Quote from Bud_Bent on Jul 8^th, 2009, 8:58am:

 
 
You'd have loved some of the 8 mile descents I had last weekend!  I'm pretty sure I need new brake pads!