Day 1 of the Ride Cancelled..I've had to pull out...

Today would have been Day 1 of the MS150 from Houston to La Grange - A distance of 100 miles. The organizers decided to cancel Day 1 last night 12 hours before 13000 riders were due to roll into the start line. It was raining heavily last night when I got home from work to prep for the ride (4 pm) but it continued to rain all day today. By sheer bad luck - a huge storm system dumped 2-4 inches of rain on La Grange yesterday and there were thunderstorms, tornado watches in force and lots of lightning for most of the day along the route.




You can see why they cancelled the use of the fairgrounds - A lot of teams and the general riders just use sleeping bags on the ground and it would have been a total mess with all the riders walking around, even if the rain had stopped. Parking would also have been a problem as there are not a lot of sealed surfaces. Another 2- 4 inches of rain expected today and the forecast for La Grange is rain most of the day. Also with the rain bands over the bulk of the ride route today it was definitely the right decision to cancel the ride.

The weather tomorrow looks fine as of 6 pm but there is still a NW head wind which will pick up to 10 mph by about 11 am and runs through the afternoon, so the earlier into Austin, the better for those riding the 80 miles tomorrow...After much deliberation, I have decided to pull out. The ride start time from La Grange has been moved to 8 am - 9.30 am and I have a work commitment requiring me to be back in Houston by 4 pm in the afternoon. Starting this late will not give me enough time to complete the ride - even if I didn't have breaks - as the journey back to Houston is just under a 3 hr trip.

I am very disappointed to miss out on the ride, given the number of good folks who have sponsored me. All that training and a shame to miss out on the ride itself - Although in the middle of day 2 one always has to dig deep to finish, it is such a blast to get to the end and the finish line in Austin. Over the course of the last 3 training rides in March/April (Tour De Houston, Space Race and The Great Escape Ride) I have covered the 180 miles but I intend to log additional miles in May to make up for missing out......

About 100 of the 130 riders we have will finish Day 2. The society has managed to raise $12M of the $17M target and will prob finish close but a lot of people are disappointed at how things have turned out for the 25th Anniversary ride. C'est la vie.......At least everyone is safe - those storms would have been dangerous and heavy going...

Weather Forecast!

The weather looks bad esp on Saturday with lots of rain, and on Sunday with a 12- 20 mph headwind..Yikes. According to the local weather guy - "The good news is that Sunday consistently looks sunny and dry. An upper-level disturbance will pass to the north of the route on Friday, perhaps spawning a line of showers/storms that could affect parts of the route on Friday. This disturbance moves off to the northeast by Friday evening, and the rain temporarily ends. On Saturday, another passing disturbance will cause another round of storms to form along the frontal boundary. The front will begin moving southeast and east and off the Texas coast by Sunday morning. Very bad - 3-4 inches of rain (or more), lightning, maybe some hail. Stuff you won't want to be out on a bike in." Rain or Shine the MS150 rolls this weekend.....!

The 2009 Jersey

Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport.........Here tis.....

Space Race 2009!

The Space Race on Sunday April 5th near Nasa. Ride Website is at
http://www.spacerace.org/

We actually took off from the Gulf Greyhound RaceWay and cycled past all the dogs in their kennels.

It was a warm, muggy day and we were not far from the coast. Unpacked the bikes and its amazing what one an fit into a small car......
I'm riding a Cannondale six 13 which has a compact crank and am still getting used to the feel of this bike. We were out of luck with the weather half way through. Went for the 80 mile ride but the wind picked up as it got later in the day and it was rough......The rest stops were few and far between. Almost 16 miles between two on the far end of the loop and the first one had run out of water so they were filling up bottles with
ice which was all they had......
I was emptying bottles at the rate of 3 every hour toward the end of the ride and started to struggle. We looped back to Restop 6 - The Wee Mart whch was part of a gas stations seen here in the picture and it sure was crowded...

Lots of wildflowers out and the weather was pleasant though. We got back in time for some cold hamburgers - The ride was sponsored by McDonals and they provided participants with free hamburgers at the end of it. Ronald McDonald was at the starting line to wave us on...
This was Restop 3 on the way out which became Restop 6 on the way back in (see last picture)


The ride organizers were overwhelmed by the number of riders and the volunteers did a good job trying to keep up with the crowds. It took us over 30 mins trying to get off the Freeway even though we left in plenty of time the first riders had already left when we finally rolled in to park the car. They were directing over 6 lanes of traffic into the parking lot at the Greyhound Race track. Turned out to be a good place to start from because of this.



Here we are at about Mile 58 toughing out the wind though it
doesn't look like it. I ran out of water on the last 3 miles in and
could really have used another drink. It was that hot and I was drinking a lot more than I had on previous rides to make up for it. Ended up feeling reasnably sore that night and a bit creaky the next day but all back to normal.......

Restop 6 on the way back in! The Wee Mart. The ride stop was out of food, so I nicked in and bought a packet of trail mix, 2 peanut bars and a packet of salted cashews. Shared these with my fellow riders and felt a lot better afterwards as I had cycled about 30 miles with only some munchies that I had brought with me to keep me going. A huge sag truck was taking about 30 riders and their bikes home. Looked a bit like a border crossing deportation.... :-) We sailed off into the wind and almost felt like joining them. Still it was a good day out......when we finally got in....