Monday, April 18, 2016

Day 1 - Houston to Austin MS150 2016

Hi everyone, I just wanted to say a huge thank you for helping to support my  MS150 bike ride this weekend. Despite the cancellation of Day 2 due to a large storm system that has brought snow to Denver and tornadoes to both Oklahoma and Northern Texas as well as flash flooding, Day 1 still went ahead. Yesterday I joined 10,000 cyclists to ride 100 miles from Houston to La Grange. Conditions were overcast making for an easier ride, and the  resulting front created a strong 8-12 mph tail wind with short patches of rain along the way.

There were so many memorable moments during the ride, plus the bonus of cycling through the wonderful Texas countryside with wildflowers, farms, horses, cattle and friendly small towns. In Belville, after the lunch stop, there were people with MS out to say thank you as we cycled around the town center.  At Fayetteville, near La Grange it always feels like the entire town of 300 turns up to cheer the riders on. In between there was a bluegrass band, with a superb fiddle and a man with a van and rather large speakers playing music (he turns up every year at a road junction when you'd least expect it). And people outside their houses, some with music, some with signs, always waving and cheering.
 

I made a collage of the day - It's hard to nail the spirit of the event. Day 2 was cancelled but it turned out for the better as you can see we had this huge storm system over us which drifted across to Houston and caused a lot of flooding across town. All the schools were closed and a lot of offices as well. If the riders had been caught up in this system it would have been bad so not having Day 2 was the safe thing to do! Till next year ....


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