After taking a week off, Vanessa and I got in two good rides this weekend. On Saturday we joined the FMC team and rode in Katy. On Sunday we froze out in Round Top and Fayetteville at the Tri-County Hill Hopper organized ride. All in all I logged 100 miles for the weekend.
For the ride on Saturday. We got up and was at the ride by 7:15. Which was good because as I was loading the bikes I noticed my tire was flat. Since I had not ridden that bike in over two weeks, that should come as no surprise. So I grabbed a spare tire and tubes and headed off to the ride. I got Vanessa's bike ready, then proceeded to change my tire. I looked at my tire and did not see anything but decided to swap tires any way. All was good. I caught up to Vanessa at the first rest stop. We proceeded to follow the route. Being a Purdue Alumni, I harassed another rider in an IU jersey. The wind started to pickup during the ride since a cold front was going to come through. Luckily we did not get rained on, but it did rain on part of the route back to the start. We got into the wet roads, and I hear a big boom. My tire I had changed blew out. I pulled over and told Vanessa to go on. I tried to boot the tire, but it was no use. The sidewall was unpatchable. So I finished the ride with a little over 44 miles.
Sunday was cold. We woke up at 4 am to make it to the ride on time. Since Vanessa and I were both ride marshals, we had to be at the ride marshal meeting at 7 am. It was 37 degrees when we left the house and 33 when we got to the start. The high was only about 65, so we pretty much kept bundled up until the last 12 miles or so. Since this route is through some good hills on the MS150 route, it is a good test to see how the legs hold up. I must admit, that I felt pretty good in the hills. In fact, I decided to turn around after going down lone oak hill, and climb it. As I climbed it, I fliped my bike computer over to show the grade. It said that the climb was 10%. I believe it is pretty close to that. There are not many hill where you can be in your smallest gear, and stand up with out needing to up shift. This one you can. I highly recommend the Tri-County Hill Hopper before next year's MS150. I finished this year with 53 hilly miles.
