Texas - Signed up for San Antonio to New Braunsfels MS 150 in october

A friend and I signed up for the San Antonio MS 150 in october. Just wondering if anyone had any sort of advice? We are both first timers for this sort of thing.
Advice on accomidations, the ride itself that make it more enjoyable.
Also my wife and three small kids are going to be heading up to San Antonio with me. Anything that they should know. Can they meet me for lunch at the lunch area. Also how hard is it for them to make it to the finish line each day.
Sorry if these questions seem "silly" but you know how wives are.

This is the first run of the new route. They will have a route for your wife to follow so she can meet you at the lunch and end locations. She will need to be careful around loads of crazy bikists :-)

The biggest thing to remember is that it is a ride and most people aren't used to pacelines and will do odd things. I almost got taken out in the last mile on the ms 150 in April by a woman that basically fell over on a hill. They have different start locations so you spend all day passing people.

This is a new route, and one of the options includes a potentially killer (literally) loop of River Road in New Braunfels. Unless they can convince the city to close River Road, someone is more than likely going to get seriously hurt.

ha you got suckered... no way is it 150 miles from SA to NB!!!!

;^)

the River Road is one of the best bike rides in the state, but you don't want to do it on a day when the drunken tubers are floating the river.

Every time i go tubing I say I'm gonna take the bike and wake up early one morning to ride River Rd. Have yet to do it.

ha you got suckered... no way is it 150 miles from SA to NB!!!!

;^)
the River Road is one of the best bike rides in the state, but you don't want to do it on a day when the drunken tubers are floating the river.

So basically in the dead of winter? :lol:

I've spent many an inebriated day floating the river in college. Now I must return to ride the route.

To the OP, get used to back to back long rides. The physical exertion itself won't be that bad, but training your body to be comfortable on the bike is very important.

I really like the advice to watch out for others. Keep your distance from other riders, and avoid the packs. People do some odd things on these rides. A guy in front of me on the MS150 was trying to climb a pretty steep hill in the big ring about midway through his cassette. His cadence dropped lower and lower until he just stalled and toppled over.

Prepare for the worst weather imaginable. Keep an eye out for a good jacket, arm warmers, and leg warmers. If the weather's beautiful keep the tags on them and return them, if it's drizzling and 50 you'll be very glad you have them. Texas weather can change before you know it. During the Frisco MS150 we went from 85 to 70 in the blink of an eye as a front pushed through. Hope you have better weather than the Houston and Dallas ones.

River Road is a great ride...in the mid to late fall...when you ride it with all the bikes going one direction only. It is an absolutely insane idea to have riders going both directions on it at the same time in early to mid afternoon in early October, when it is still hot enough for folks to be on the river getting drunk.

As for the 150 miles, they are riding out to LaVernia and then up to NB through Seguin. Without doing the death loop up and down River Road on Saturday, the total will be about 130 miles for the 2 days. With the death loop, it will be about 160.

BTW Bonescrub, just so it doesn't get lost in the other comments, let me make a second post and be the first person with MS to tell you thanks for riding!

thanks for all the advice. Sorry if I called it the wrong name but MS 132 or 160 didnt sound right?

txags92 glad to do it, something I wanted to do for a long time. I have a friend that I graduated high school with and each time see her she is nothing like she was in high school or even a few years ago.