did the Katy challenge today on the 68 mile route, after riding the first 20 with the SAG guy and saw a lot of asinine behavior similar to what was described even in those distances. Apparently the pace line and the Hammer heads also consider themselves oblivious to warning about passing, speeding through stop signed intersections and around corners cutting off people and cars with or without the distance or the intermittent rain showers. The SAG guy got driven into a ditch by three hammerheads who cut inside him on a left turn and instead of staying out a bit(very quiet road)immediately cut him off and forced him into a ditch. He ended up extra wet and with a water logged cell phone. My own personal feeling is that since they always give out registration numbers, they ought to also make each rider sign a obey the rules of the road and road ride rules sheet when they receive numbers. That way people could report riders violating the road rules and report them and hopefully the ones that are members of team or bike clubs could be publically shamed or at least reprimanded.


My ride could have ended at the door but thanks to the Sag guy, it was rescued and the rest of it although wet was pleasant enough aside from the usual idiots who ride up on you, draft for a while and then speed off so you can't catch up, pass in a long line on a narrow shoulder without warning and run the stop signs especially when the corner is only equipped with a volunteer and not a policeman as well.

I walked out to the garage to start the ride and discovered that the bike had a flat tire. The SAG guy came out and fixed it in 15 minutes whereas had I been doing it, it would have taken and hour and a half at which point I would have called the ride. So SAG guy was my hero today.

So aside from the rain, the rescued start and the fact that my garmin computer leapt off of my bike just before Pattison and it took me a while to find it in the weeds it was a good ride.

Will I do the ride again, probably not unless it is specifically to do the century on familiar roads since there are other local rides which are more about supporting a charity rather than a bike club that also offer centuries and are not quite so big.

SAG guy and I are both content with our ride, a bit tired and a bit sunbit but glad that we did it.