Rode the 66 mile course today.  The start was actually inside the stadium with nothing more than a wide sidewalk to come out on!  John, Ken, Steve and I waited outside for everybody.  No use adding to the body count.  Ran into another RBENTer but John will have to remind me of the name.  Y'all will probably recognize him in the picture.  He's kinda hard to miss!  It turned out to be one of the hilliest rides I've been on and I made the mistake of attacking every one.  I almost quit 17 miles from the end due to knee pain.  I got some ibuprofen from another rider and walked up the next hill and just started pedaling down with one leg.  Eventually the drugs kicked in and it was just enough that I could trade off pedaling with one leg for a while, then two, then one... I was pretty angry for a while because everything else was feeling good but that darn knee was keeping me from finishing in a good time.  Then I noticed there were people not catching up to me even when I pedaled with one leg and that made me feel better. Overall, it wasn't too bad.  I felt a lot better the last five miles or so and they had free sno-cones at the end! Then John and I stopped at Braum's for a pretty good grilled chicken sandwich and a tub o' Dr. Pepper!  Yes, there was chipseal but not too much.  Interestingly, we rode for 3-5 miles on the Bobcat Bite route then crossed the highway at the Bobcat's first control.  Overall, I liked the ride.  It was a nice route.
 

 

 

 

 

That was Bob McClure in the yellow bathtub.

No no no, it's the yellow coffin of doom.