My Hotter N Hell report

[MikeWaters]

I started out with my dad, a friend from my ward growing up and his friend. And my dad's friend from his cycling club.

So we started out and it was me, my ward friend, and his friend.

After a bit of catching pace lines, going from 23-26mph or so, my ward friend tells me we are going too fast. I look back, and his pouring sweat. So I tell him to catch a line that feels comfortable, and I'll follow.

This works for a while, except for the fact that he is leading us and we are not in a line!

Eventually I get to the front, and a while later, I look back, and they are gone. So I slow up and wait, and wait, and wait. Finally I figure they must have passed me when I wasn't looking, so I start up again.

From then on I was on my own.

This ride has over 11,000 riders. However they did something new this year, you started based on your stated ability. So the faster people started in front, and the slower in back (with racers and tandems starting before everyone). What this meant was that there were fewer fast pacelines coming from behind you. You get in situations where most everyone in front of you is faster than you, and everyone behind you is slower than you, leaving you in no-man's land. I had a lot of uneven effort, where I would catch a line, then go for a time, break off, find myself alone, and then have the people behind me catch me. I was smart enough to not want to do much work myself.

The most brutal part of this year's ride was not the heat (the predicted high was 95), it was the wind. I don't know that the wind was even THAT strong. Something below 15mph. But the crosswinds were brutal and took a toll. Not to mention that the last 20 miles or so were directly into the wind.

At mile 75, I was miking a guy on a tribike, and he looks back at me a bunch and finally pulls off to the left. We have a little conversation where he tells me in a friendly way, he doesn't like people on his wheel, and I tell him in a friendly way that I don't care and he better pull me to the finish. So he says he will pull me to the group ahead. So I follow, and it took a lot of effort at this point, to follow him at 23/24mph. I get to the group, and a couple minutes after than my left hamstring cramps. Game over. Insert 25 cents to continue. I stopped at the next rest stop and ate half a pickle and drank a bottle of pickle juice.

From mile 75 to about mile 90 I really suffered. Rollers, wind, not much help. I was going about 14mph.

After another stop, at mile 90, I felt better and was able to follow a tribike most of the way to the finish at 102.4 miles at about 18-20mph.

I noticed that there were a disproportionate number of tribikes around me on this ride. I think it had to do with the wind and the way we had a staggered start. I wish I had put my aero bars on myself.

I was disappointed a bit with my time, 5:30. (that's total time, not rolling time). Had 4 stops.

I felt a bit better about my time when my dad rolled in at about 6:22 and then later my mentor/friend (the 58 year old guy who did RAGBRAI who didn't get to answer the woman who asked if he wanted her tits in his face) rolled in at about 6:45 (both have done sub 5hr rides before on this ride).

One of the highlights of the ride was the flyover over the line before the start by 4 F-16s (near Air Force base).

This is the best-known best-attend ride in Texas. It is epic in scale. There is a convention center there with many vendors showing and selling their wares. There are crit races Fri. evening. There is a mtn bike race as well I believe. The entire town gets behind the event, and the number of volunteers is just staggering. I believe there were 2000 volunteers just for the rest stops. This is the best supported ride you'll ever do. Medical support throughout the ride. Helicopter evacuation.

It's a great opportunity to do a sub 5hr century (which I have done before), if the elements cooperate (and you are prepared).

I didn't hydrate and eat enough, and that did me in. And I didn't have the miles. And I started too fast. But it was all fun.

[The Borg]

Good job...sounds like a fun ride. No pace lines?....with 11,000 riders? What a mass of humanity riding around. Can't imagine what that must have been like.

Any pics?

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by The Borg

Good job...sounds like a fun ride. No pace lines?....with 11,000 riders? What a mass of humanity riding around. Can't imagine what that must have been like.

Any pics?

There are lots of pace lines. It's just that towards the last1/3rd of the race, they become more sparse, and it's harder to find one that is at the right speed.

At the beginning, it was pretty crazy. The entire two lane road, 10 miles into the ride, was a paceline.

[RC Vikings]

Did you tell that guy that your miking behind him wouldn't affect him at all? Most guys are pretty good about that as long as you don't sprint around him at the end.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by RC Vikings

Did you tell that guy that your miking behind him wouldn't affect him at all? Most guys are pretty good about that as long as you don't sprint around him at the end.

He said when I was behind him he felt "pressured".

We were a long ways from the finish.

the last guy I miked, I swung off a few hundred yards from the finish and told him thanks, and let him finish in front.

[creekster]

In defense of the guy that griped about being miked, it can be sort of worrisome. On our tandem (at least when I am in shape) we get miked a lot at these sorts of rides and I usually either try to drop them or let them know I don't like it. The draft itself casues you no problems, but I have little confidence in the bike handling skills of riders I don't know. We have had guys come up and draft so close they are overlapping wheels and I just don't care for that if I don't know how well the guy can handle his bike.

Great report Mike.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by creekster

In defense of the guy that griped about being miked, it can be sort of worrisome. On our tandem (at least when I am in shape) we get miked a lot at these sorts of rides and I usually either try to drop them or let them know I don't like it. The draft itself casues you no problems, but I have little confidence in the bike handling skills of riders I don't know. We have had guys come up and draft so close they are overlapping wheels and I just don't care for that if I don't know how well the guy can handle his bike.

Great report Mike.

almost always when there is a touch of wheels the guy in back goes down, and the guy in front stays up.

My opinion, if you don't want to be miked on a ride with 11,000 riders, have a sign on your back or don't go on the ride.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

almost always when there is a touch of wheels the guy in back goes down, and the guy in front stays up.

My opinion, if you don't want to be miked on a ride with 11,000 riders, have a sign on your back or don't go on the ride.

True, and I am overstating it a bit, but we have had gusy sit on our tandem wheel when they are obviously tired and with a very wobbly front wheel. Usually the guy in front is fine but I am not so keen on finding out how the exception works. If given a prefernce, I will avoid having someone on my wheel that is too close. These days, of course, I have solved the problem by being so slow that no one wants me to pull except over to get out of the way.

I never ridden with 10k+ people and the rides we ususally do don't have mass tatrst. Of course with 10k+ even rolling start times probabyl look like mass starts.