Unbelievable, Tim! I love reading these. Good luck in TX. SteveT -----Original Message----- From: "Tim & Susan" <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Sun, 1 May 2011 09:56:40 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: [COWs] 400K Ride Report!!!
About 30 riders took off from Morrisville Sat. morning for a 250 mile cruise to the Uwharrie Mountains with 16,000 feet of climbs including "Flint Hill" at 15 % grade. This is my last bit of practice before going to Texas next week. To think this was only a practice ride! I had a strategy for this ride that I was hoping would make it more enjoyable and it worked. My theory was to let the fast group go around mile 40, then solo at a more leisurely pace while taking much shorter rest stops. I still had plenty of company riding with others. John o. hung around for the early stages but I don't think he liked my short stops. I rode with a group from Virginia Beach on the first pass through the Uwharries as they were also short stopping and I joined the lead group at the turn around mile 125. Soon to be dropped again as I took it easy on the long climbs riding in my granny gear. I made up some time on the descents as I aired it out. The guys/gal up front are now taking longer rest stops as they were paying a bit for the hard riding. I left out of Seagrove a couple minutes behind the first 3 riders. As the peloton caught me I hung on to Siler City where my bud Ian had fresh hot pizza waiting. He had timed our arrival perfectly. Awesome day to ride long, mid-70's and light winds. The group reunited again at Snow camp, mile 200 just before sunset. We all rigged up our lights and safety gear and then left out in smaller groups. A few miles later a group of 5 pulled away never to be seen again. My goal was to finish before midnight and it appeared to be a done deal. Branson in the front group rode a fixed gear at 75 gear inches. The man is a beast! He keeps telling me his fixed gear is easier to ride than my single speed. All I know is that I had 20 gears yesterday, and I used every dang one of them. With about 25 miles to go Mike Dayton caught up with me and we rode the last 25 in together. We finished up at 11:30pm. Three more rode in at 11:55. Geof and I were keeping tabs on a couple of guys pre-riding the TX-1200K this weekend. They both DNF'd yesterday after only one day. Now we're getting a little nervous. We talk strategy a bit last night after the ride. The first day in TX is traveling southwest from Dallas to Marble Falls outside of Austin. There are lots of rolling hills and 225 miles into the wind. I'm staying in the peloton on day one. tim -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CyclistsOfWilson-COWs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cyclistsofwilson-cows?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CyclistsOfWilson-COWs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cyclistsofwilson-cows?hl=en.
