Memorial Day Weekend

Well, we decided to take this holiday weekend and get in some good riding. Vanessa and I rode on both Saturday and Sunday. We met one of our friends in Montgomery on Saturday. Then joined The Woodlands Cycling Club on Sunday.

Saturdays ride was a short 45 mile ride in the hills. We left out a few minutes behind another group. We ended up not seeing anyone for a while. I split the ride between riding with our friend and riding with Vanessa. A few times I took an opportunity to leave Vanessa and catch our friend. We took the short route because we had plans for the afternoon and had to be somewhere by 1:30.

Sunday we rode with The Woodlands/Bike Lane group. Since the group had a no drop beginners ride, I was able to ride with the faster riders. I was not able to keep up with the fastest riders, but was able to keep in the middle of the group. As we headed out on 242, I had my first puncture in my tubeless tires. The sealant worked well. The guy behind me did not much appreciate getting sprayed in the face. I finished the ride wet because we got rained on. All in all it was a good ride because I finished with a 19.5 average for 38 miles.

Bike Education

Well after taking last week off to do some cross training (yard work),
this week I helped teach a bike safety class. We had six attendees at
the class, four of which were from NWCC. The class consisted of
classroom discussion on Saturday, then all the on bike work on Sunday.
We decided to ride to the class Sunday morning. We finished with a
little over 20 miles of riding. Not bad, and I got to share my
knowledge of cycling with others.

No bike ride this weekend

I did ride to work on Friday, but we decided to get some much needed work done around the house, AKA yard work! We pulled weeds and laid down new mulch. So after 55 bags of mulch, I am sore and ready to get back to riding the bike. Next weekend involves teaching a Traffic Skills 101 class. Maybe I can get in another ride to work this coming week.

2009 GHORBA Big Ring Challenge

Today was the Big Ring Challenge at Double lake. Vanessa and I decided to make a weekend of it. Yesterday we went up and pre-rode the course. Vanessa also sat in on the beginners clinic held on Saturday. While she was in the clinic, I headed out for a easy warm up lap. I got back and they were still talking. Once they were finished, Vanessa and I headed out for a easy ride. She ended up falling while getting out of the way for another rider, and bruised her arm. Needless to say she sucked it up and suited up and rode today. I am proud of her considering that she was finished with about 3 miles to go to a bail out point in the trail. The trail was a little damp in a few places but not bad over all.

Today the weather was a little crazy. When we pulled up, it had just finished raining pretty hard, but the race went on. The course was a wet, muddy mess and it was slowing everyone down. In fact they decided to make the Cat 3 races only do 1 lap instead of 2. After we finished, I was glad. My one lap this year was within 10 seconds longer than last years lap average. So considering the places in the course that slowed me down, I am pretty pleased with my results. I finished 23 out of 34. Luckily by the time I raced, the track was not as muddy as the previous races. I came in pretty clean over all compared to the Cat 1 races. Next mountain bike race is at Hotter'n Hell. Friday night is the mtb bike time trial.