I had a very enjoyable trip, carpooling up with Lynn again as usual -- The Lamar gets better and better every year, and I slept well Friday night, although the 4AM lights-on was a bit rough... Good times, pal-ing around with Bud, DJ, Rick, and others, and good to meet ATX from Austin!
The 6:10 AM start seemed to be the choice of most of the day's riders -- the start area was full of 'bents and tandems... and that start time had the advantage of getting us off before many of the "start cheaters" got on the road -- the temps were cool, the first 10 miles were practically empty of other riders, and the sun was just coming up when we hit the 20 mile point!
I had decided to do a "different" HHH this year, and rode most of it with GDB tandem pals Dennis and Michelle, just holding a steady 20mph pace for the most part -- so we stopped at the 20, 40, 50 rest stops, stopped to take photos in front of Pyro Pete, then took the cutoff to go through the air force base instead of doing the 100, despite being at Hell's Gate before 9:30AM. Going through the base was pretty cool, never having done that before -- I got some great photos which I'll post tomorrow. Heard a lot of "Awesome machine!" from the guys on the base...
Crossed the finish with 75 miles and a 20mph on-bike average about 11:15 (if memory serves), and could have easily done a lot more. At that point, I rode the 100mile route backwards out to the Beer Stop
, to meet several other friends and hang for a while, then rode back in about 1:30ish, and happened to see Bud and DJ downtown, dashing towards the finish, trying to beat their 5 hour goal. Congrats to you both!
After cleaning up a the Lamar, I had to drive out to RS9 to SAG in a friend who had cratered in the heat, and I was shocked at the number of riders still on the course in the 2:30-3:00 PM timeframe. At that time, they "closed" the ride, as temps had reached 110 degrees, telling people if they continued on, they were doing it without official support. People were REALLY hurting in that heat... no wonder, if they took 7-8 hours to get to mile 80...
Excellent trip, overall...
I think the 6:10AM start is a keeper...