aikigreg
Last night at 5pm I met up with Barlows to re-create the Cedar Hills pay ride that had taken place that day. We were going to ride the 66 mile route and then ride the 40 as time allowed to get a sweet century in with most of the riding done at night.
This was pure genius on Steve's aprt to suggest this, by the way. Even though he had everything plugged into his garmin, we had spray painted directions, and presumably the roads would be swept clean of debris.
So we met at cedar hills high school and it seemed windy as heck with the front moving in. It was hot and humid as well. I was glycogen drained to begin with having raced in a TT earlier that day. We set off (what, about 5:45 maybe, Steve?) and immediately got in some bonus miles having to backtrack around to the route, and hit the wind and the hills around Ceder Hill, 67, and Texas Plume road. some of the roads around there have some potholes and such, but they were all very well marked. My thighs just weren't having much of the hills and I was MUCH slower than I should be, but Steve was kindly enough to wait up for me. We were dripping with sweat for a while - it was running out of Steve's helmet and my back was soaked through. Between that and the sunscreen I stopped being able to shift gears and had to grind the pedals and my knees up some pretty solid inclines.
It got dark right about the time we hit the halfway point in Maypearl, where we stopped for liquid refreshment. Of course the wind shifted with the front coming in to be back in our faces, but honestly we were in such heavily treed, sheltered area where we rode that it wasn't a factor until the last 4-5 miles of the ride anyway.
We hit the lights and had no problems navigating, between my L&M arc-lion and his home-made LED that was almost as bright. The bugs sure liked mine better though! When we stopped at an intersection it was like my bike was the bug's momma! The bugs lasted only a few minutes and then it was a cool dry ride all the rest of the way back. Smooth roads and practically zero traffic that time of night. It was like we had the whole thing to ourselves.
When we got back, Steve treated me to an ice-cold beer that we drank out of water bottles - most fitting and dont'cha know a Cedar Hill cop pulled up right as I was about to take my first swig. The cop says:
"you boys ride that bicycle ride today?" (what, you think we're just that MF'in slow, dude?)
So after he left we drank our beers and had a good chat. If you ever get to ride with Steve, he's a class act all the way. It's rare that I've ridden with such a friendly rider, and I've ridden with a lot of people.
So some of you clowns really need to come out with us when we do this night ride again. It was really a blast!
This was pure genius on Steve's aprt to suggest this, by the way. Even though he had everything plugged into his garmin, we had spray painted directions, and presumably the roads would be swept clean of debris.
So we met at cedar hills high school and it seemed windy as heck with the front moving in. It was hot and humid as well. I was glycogen drained to begin with having raced in a TT earlier that day. We set off (what, about 5:45 maybe, Steve?) and immediately got in some bonus miles having to backtrack around to the route, and hit the wind and the hills around Ceder Hill, 67, and Texas Plume road. some of the roads around there have some potholes and such, but they were all very well marked. My thighs just weren't having much of the hills and I was MUCH slower than I should be, but Steve was kindly enough to wait up for me. We were dripping with sweat for a while - it was running out of Steve's helmet and my back was soaked through. Between that and the sunscreen I stopped being able to shift gears and had to grind the pedals and my knees up some pretty solid inclines.
It got dark right about the time we hit the halfway point in Maypearl, where we stopped for liquid refreshment. Of course the wind shifted with the front coming in to be back in our faces, but honestly we were in such heavily treed, sheltered area where we rode that it wasn't a factor until the last 4-5 miles of the ride anyway.
We hit the lights and had no problems navigating, between my L&M arc-lion and his home-made LED that was almost as bright. The bugs sure liked mine better though! When we stopped at an intersection it was like my bike was the bug's momma! The bugs lasted only a few minutes and then it was a cool dry ride all the rest of the way back. Smooth roads and practically zero traffic that time of night. It was like we had the whole thing to ourselves.
When we got back, Steve treated me to an ice-cold beer that we drank out of water bottles - most fitting and dont'cha know a Cedar Hill cop pulled up right as I was about to take my first swig. The cop says:
"you boys ride that bicycle ride today?" (what, you think we're just that MF'in slow, dude?)
So after he left we drank our beers and had a good chat. If you ever get to ride with Steve, he's a class act all the way. It's rare that I've ridden with such a friendly rider, and I've ridden with a lot of people.
So some of you clowns really need to come out with us when we do this night ride again. It was really a blast!