'Twas a beautiful day for a bike ride, temps in the 60s-70s with minimal wind... too bad it had to be on the chipseal of the Paluxy Pedal...
I was the only recumbent out there, as far as I could tell... anticipating the chipseal and having to climb The Wall, I rode the Rocket with the Hoagie seat, with 1.3" front and back tires at 85psi... Did the 65-mile route -- I was riding with some other GDB folks, so was with 3-4 others pretty much the whole way, just cruising along and occasionally regrouping after climbs.
The CONS:
1) Only one porta potty at each rest stop... (at least the ones we stopped at) ... ridiculous...
2) Brand new boulder seal AT COUNTY LINE HILL... nasty, nasty...
3) Somervell County roads have nasty chip seal
4) The Wall was at MILE 50 of this year's route -- and there was a LOT of climbing to do before you got there
5) There was a cattle grate at a right turn after a fast downhill, not well marked... hope nobody crashed!
6) The last part of the route went through road construction on Hwy 67 -- definitely a dangerous stretch
The PROS:
1) Lotsa calories burned, climbing hills;
2) Friendly folks, and good police/traffic control
3) Well marked route, for the most part, with minimal car traffic;
4) No dogs out
5) The Wall is climbable on a 'bent
if you have the right gearing (28/32) and can keep it steady -- I was at 3.5 - 4 mph the whole way up. This is why I rode the Rocket instead of the Xstream!
Fun note -- I passed three guys who were all walking their bikes up The Wall... hearing several "
No Way!"s...
We finished in 5 hours, which included at least 30 minutes waiting in portapotty lines... Doing this rally pretty much convinced me to never do the Texas Time Trials ever again, however... at least until they find better roads... even with the 1.3" tires, the chipseal got old... But I'm glad I was finally able to do the rally!