Texas - Autumn in Bonham - Sept. 27th!!

Anyone going out there? I know that with the canceling of the TxTough ride due to Ike, there should be a good number of people headed out there. I'm leaving my apt. at 6:30am near RBM Richardson. Anyone looking to split gas costs is welcome to PM me to arrange to fill the second seat in my truck and the second spot on my bike rack.

We'll be out there for the TX Tough makeup ride.

I'll be there. I was going to do the 44 miler...but the wife wants to go, so I'll be riding sloooow on the 14 mile route. Meh...not a major workout, but Maybe it will encourage her to ride more.

Just got in from the rally. We did the 14 mile route (actually 17 miles with some extra toolin' around) and it was pretty relaxing for me. I worked on keeping my cadence above 70, which is real fun when my spousal unit averaged 9 mph. :lol: I think I finished out with more energy than when I started.:D

Sue was very surprised that she finished in good form and wasn't too tired (I kept reminding her not to mash).
I'm looking forward to getting her up to speed next summer and having company on some of my longer, faster rides.:love:

A few notes about the ride.
Nice job of traffic control....up until the larger, busier sections from the middle on to the end. Major intersections with no one there at all made me uncomfortable (and I ride in traffic a lot!) I can only imagine how some of the parents felt about taking their kids through.:twitchy:

I also noticed that the longer rides came in on previously controlled intersections that had nobody there for those returning.....Kind of bad form, if you ask me. For those of you who were returning after noon, I hope you didn't have any close calls.

All in all though, we had a good time on (mostly) nice roads and didn't die.:p
We look forward to going again next year.

I had a, well, interesting ride. I planned to do the 64mi route, and met up with a lot of PBA members who were there to do the TxTough make up ride. I knew most of them were considerably faster than me, but against my better judgement I rolled out with them and was hell bent on staying with them the best I could. I got split from the group for a while when another group I was drafting on lost contact with the PBA group, however a few miles later another train of riders came by that my group latched on to. These two groups soon merged into one group of probably 40+ riders, hauling down the road at 20-26mph (avg of 22-23). Approx mile 28, both of my hips and sit bones quite suddenly started causing me pain, forcing me to fall off the back of the fast moving group, and soon stop completely to try to stretch. I continued with one other lady rider (her nickname princess, riding a very nice black and pink Colnago with Campagnolo) who had stayed with me. I tried not to show how much pain I was in, and it seemed to be coming and going over the next 5 miles till we reached the rest stop at mile 33. We both stopped, and I tried to stretch, and or figure out anything to reduce the pain to allow me to continue riding. I found a couple of Advil from the volunteers at the rest stop, but as soon as I attempted to get back on the bike the shooting pain from my sitbones told me I was in no condition to continue.

So, my planned 64mi at 17mph, became a 33mi ride at 21.6mph. This is, far and above (by probably 2mph) the fastest ride I've ever done, and considering that I took most of the month of August off the bike completely, I can't beat myself up too badly about being unable to continue. I'm still quite sore tonight, and riding tomorrow is unlikely, but I"ll make the call on that come tomorrow morning.

I did the 54 route to get some work in on the rollers. Traffic control was invisible after the start except at a couple of minor intersections. The really bad ones were fend for yourself which was weird. They seemed to only staff a couple of really dead ones instead.

Our route markings were a problem for many if not most riders too. Fortunately I had torn out the route map. I directed and/or chased down and corralled enough riders that I ended up with an extra 3 miles of ride distance. It was really bad. There were signs and road marking that contradicted each other and intersections with no guidance at all. I was really not impressed. That rally has gotten steadily worse every year and it may have hit rock bottom. Our route took us out onto a section of 70mph road that was so narrow that there wasn't even room for a fog line. I got buzzed more times today than I have in two years of commuting through Plano...and that's saying something. I almost got hit twice. Both were really really close calls. One was by a truck pulling a trailer who swerved back into the lane before the trailer had cleared me. I spun off into the dirt but didn't go down. At the last big intersection between the town square and the events center the volunteers waved us forward right into turning traffic! They had not stopped the cars from taking the turn when they waved us through! I was able to slide to a stop parallel to a moving truck or I would have been broad sided. In all my years of riding these events, I have never seen any with worse traffic control. I never saw one police officer all day...well except for the one chasing the two vehicles that passed us out on the route doing close to 100mph. So much for the promise of quiet roads with light traffic. Boy that was a laugh. That was the most wheels off event I have ever ridden. I won't even go back to Bonham again, much less ride this event. I felt lucky to have gotten in alive.

The other thing that I would say too is that these were the roughest chip and seal roads I have ridden, ever. And probably 75% of our route was fresh with it. Ugh. I needed to go soak my prostate after almost 50 miles of that washboard. That may have been the same issue that you were feeling Cuda. Bones don't cramp. It feels pretty much like what you described too. Hope all made it home okay.

yow!

Rule, make sure you send this into bicycle-stuff.com

So, my planned 64mi at 17mph, became a 33mi ride at 21.6mph. This is, far and above (by probably 2mph) the fastest ride I've ever done, and considering that I took most of the month of August off the bike completely, I can't beat myself up too badly about being unable to continue. I'm still quite sore tonight, and riding tomorrow is unlikely, but I"ll make the call on that come tomorrow morning.

I knew you rolled into that stop a bit after we did, but had no idea you were hurting - sorry to hear that (and glad we didn't wait for you to get back on your bike to head out with the PBA Train).

Great job on the high average though. I stayed with my wife the entire ride and really wanted her to prove to herself she could end with a 20+ avg - and we hit a 20.8 avg for the 64 miles, so goal achieved for her.

I knew you rolled into that stop a bit after we did, but had no idea you were hurting - sorry to hear that (and glad we didn't wait for you to get back on your bike to head out with the PBA Train).

Great job on the high average though. I stayed with my wife the entire ride and really wanted her to prove to herself she could end with a 20+ avg - and we hit a 20.8 avg for the 64 miles, so goal achieved for her.

Pass along my congrats to Anne. She was looking strong out there. I was feeling really good till I hit the pain wall. I was (and still am) rather bummed I had to pack it in when I did. It was a beautiful day.

Rule - sorry to hear the southern route wasn't better controled. Certainly something we need to make sure organizers know that they need to fix for next year!

I have never posted a negative ride review before. May have to make this one the first though I guess but I hate to do it. Oh well.

I have never posted a negative ride review before. May have to make this one the first though I guess but I hate to do it. Oh well.

I can't believe how bad you guys got it with the shorter routes - that really is unfortunate. On the 64 mile route, we had that rough stretch just outside of Bonham, and then the roads were just great (much better than all the roads that have been recently ruined with chip-seal in Collin County).

As far as intersection controls, we seemed to have people stationed at the "important" roads, for the most part, otherwise, the signage for upcoming turns was more than adequate (and you could actually read them before you were right on top of them).