February 3 Rides

[mtkitchn]

I got almost 34 miles. Rode to the start of our club ride, did the short version of the club ride, and rode home. On my way home, I was trying to avoid a car, knew I wouldn't get stopped in time, and put the bike down. Road rash, but nothing serious and no damage that I can see to the bike.

[Meaux]

I did Bike Through the Forest yesterday and chose to do the 55 mile route. I was feeling pretty good, and we all started the ride. Then it took us out on to the feeder road of US59, one of the busiest freeways in Houston. There was minimal police escort, one officer for every large intersection. About 5-7 miles into it, a cyclist got mowed down by an impatient truck. He flew up onto the hood and broke the windshield Another cyclist hit the truck, and yet another cyclist hit THAT cyclist. We had to walk our bikes through the intersection, it was pretty sobering to see the guy laying on the ground with all these bikes around him. My husband later found out that there was a neurologist riding and he wanted to examine the 1st cyclist, but the cops wouldn't let him. Interesting. So, we went on our way, and after the 1st rest stop, DH got a flat. He changed it and towards the end, he was told me I was almost done and that to just go on without him and he'd catch up. So I went 8 miles to the next rest stop and he still hadn't caught up. A very nice woman let me borrow her cell phone and he told me that he had gotten lost (poor markings of the route, another bad thing about this awful ride) and that he was going back. I told him I was going ahead. I made it to the 3rd rest stop, ate some Shot Bloks (pina colada, tasty!) and went on. What I didn't know is that they had already started taking down the route marker signs, so I missed a turn and got VERY VERY lost. I ended up 15 miles off course and had to ride through a place called Cut and Shoot, TX. Lucky for me, another cyclist was just ahead of me, so he let me use his phone to call DH and get the SAG to come find us. I only got to do 43 miles and was almost killed by some very scary Harley-riding bikers. My father-in-law finished the ride and the last 5 or so miles were on the same feeder road, but that side was under construction, there was only one lane for cyclist and cars to share. One cyclist had the choice of either getting hit by a car or veering off the road. He chose the veering option and hit some kind of trench the construction workers had dug, causing his bike to snap in half and probably some real damage to himself. This was a VERY poorly planned ride. DH said that some of the organizers at the rest stop were laughing about how badly this went and how they have learned SO much. I don't think anyone will be Biking Through the Forest next year. I just want to know why this was an MS150 recommended ride. Ugh.

[Aggie_Ama]

I believe the MS150 allows you to review their recommended rides. If not I would contact the MS Society and let them know how bad it was. I am not sure how much weight those reviews carry, but this is unacceptable. They get encouragement for 13,000 people to do these rides!

[Meaux]

I believe the MS150 allows you to review their recommended rides. If not I would contact the MS Society and let them know how bad it was. I am not sure how much weight those reviews carry, but this is unacceptable. They get encouragement for 13,000 people to do these rides!

DH and I will drafting an e-mail tonight to them. We were pretty upset about the entire situation. It was not a very biker-friendly bike ride. Oddly enough they were giving out bottles of water from the Kingwood Funeral Home. Was this route planned to help with their business?? Sure seemed like it.

[SadieKate]

Chief Whiner-in-Training only because the Chief Whiner seemed to be out of practice. Must have been because it's been awhile since she's ridden with us. Those speedbumps were brutal.

Cool camel! There was one for years on one of our regular rides but he finally died of very old age. I always looked forward to it.

A "big chunk" of Felter was over 10%? Really? Ooh, I feel better now.

[maillotpois]

Excellent report and photos! Wish I'd been there.

We did our first Death Ride team training ride. It went okay. There's a story there but I'm not getting into it.

[mimitabby]

I did Bike Through the Forest yesterday

This was a VERY poorly planned ride. DH said that some of the organizers at the rest stop were laughing about how badly this went and how they have learned SO much. I don't think anyone will be Biking Through the Forest next year. I just want to know why this was an MS150 recommended ride. Ugh.

wow! I guess there really aren't any forests in Texas!
what a ride. I am glad you survived. You should write a letter to the organizers and let them know what you think. Just because the volunteers were talking about it doesn't mean the organizers realize how bad it was for you!

[Veronica]

I rode with the Bobs, SK and Bubba, aka_kim, Trekhawk and Daniel from Bikejournal (forget what his name is over there.) We rode a lovely bike trail and saw lots of ducks, and then headed over to the Calaveras reservoir and up Felter Road. A great ride, good company and fine eats after courtesy of the Bobs.

Here are a couple of pics. In the on the road shot we have Jo, Trekhawk, aka_kim, Daniel, SK's helmet, Bubba and LeeBob's helmet.

The standing group is V, Lee , aka_kim, Trekhawk, Bubba, SK, Jo and Daniel.


V.

[mimitabby]

I rode with the Bobs, SK and Bubba, aka_kim, Trekhawk and Daniel from Bikejournal

V.

Veronica, you clearly had better weather in SF than we had in Seattle!

[Veronica]

Bubba is playing with SK's Assos.

V.

[jobob]

We had great weather, it was a good biking temperature yesterday, cool but not cold. But it was awfully hazy out, so the gang was deprived of the great views along Calaveras and especially on top Sierra Road. Oh well, I'll just have to take them up there again !

Here's another group shot, this time at the top of Sierra Road. You might be able to see some of the markings on the road from last year's Tour of California.



From the left, jobob, Glenn (gw_12 on Bikejournal, who is this annoyingly fit rider who routinely climbs Sierra Road during his lunch hour at work ... gah. He recognized our AV jerseys on his way down Felter and turned around and joined us for the rest of the climb back up), Daniel (LanceOldStrong on bj), the Bubs, V, Trekhawk & aka_kim. Leebob was a little bit behind us and opted to wait for us.

And here's the ride profile from my 'puter:


I caught so much grief from everyone (especially chief whiner-in-training SadieKate) when I mentioned "it's all downhill from here" at the top of Sierra Road, and we got to the climbs up Warren Ave and Mission Blvd at the 50-ish mile point - well, yeah, I conveniently forgot to mention them. But geeeeeze, they were nothing compared to what we did before that!


A fun day with the gang, and I really enjoyed showing them a nice ride in my neck of the woods. I'd say we got our Feb climbing challenge off to a good start.

[mimitabby]

Jobob, how steep were some of those hills? 10%, 12% ??

[jobob]

The climb from miles 20-30, which was Calaveras Road, wasn't steep - it averaged about 5%, and very rarely got over 6%. The quick drop at about mile 30 is the Calaveras Wall, which is roughly 12-15% for a half-mile (but we went down it)

Past mile 30 was the climb up Felter Road, which is the "easy" backside of the Sierra Road climb (a Cat. 1 climb on the Tour of California). Felter was about 4 miles with a big chunk of it over 10% - in places it was about 15% Luckily the steeper sections didn't go for very long. There were also some conviently located flat sections where we could get our heartrates back to almost normal. Once Felter Rd. became Sierra Rd. the climb was more gradual rollers for the last mile or so.

(In contrast, the climb up the Sierra Road side basically goes up nonstop, and averages about 12% for about 3.5 miles and in many places kicks up to 20%. gah. We'll do it though.)