| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
66.26 miles
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Altitude Gain:
3,135 ft
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Avg Speed:
21.03 mph
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Route:
Montgomery, Tx
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Avg Grade: 0 %
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Max Grade: 0 %
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Max HR: 0 bpm
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Avg HR: 0 bpm
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Terrain: Road: Rolling
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Bike: Look 585 Carbon Road
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Club: Schuyler County Cycling Club |
| Weather Conditions: Sunny 38-59 F W wind @ 6 mph |
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Today's metric century was in Montgomery, TX northwest of Houston. Weather was quite different from yesterday's warm but windy weather on the east side of Houston. Wind was milder and was out of the west at around six miles an hour. The bad news was it was only thirty-five degrees when I arrived at the start. Temperature was predicted to be near forty at the start at eight and to rise to near sixty by noon. Parking lot was crowded when I got there and would estimate a crowd of several hundred riders. They staged the start into three groups for the three different length rides into average speed groups, They had a group of 23+ mph, 17-22 mph and 16 and under. When just one or two riders lined up in the 23+ area they rezoned it to a 20+ avg. A couple of dozen riders including me that had lined up in the 17+ moved into the twenty plus. First unpleasantness other than the cold was the loud offensive rap music that the promoter's hep DJ blasted out to motivate the riders. Really, really didn't need that. Legs still felt tired from yesterday's hammerfest and didn't have high hopes for today's hilly course. Plan was to stay in draft and hang on as long as possible. Actually did okay for the first twenty miles but as the pack got smaller and smaller I was unable to hide in the back. Was able to survive until there were only nine left in the pack but after taking a pull up the fourth of ten climbs in the day around the twenty mile mark, I was unable to grab back on the line as it went by. There were only two significant climbs in the ride one at thirty and the other at forty miles. Rode alone after I got dropped to the rest stop at the top of the first real climb. Stopped and got some cookies then headed out with and drafted another group to the top of the second climb at the forty mile mark. After the forty mile mark we started encountering heavy bike traffic as we overtook riders from the shorter two rides. Left the group I was with and rode the rest of the ride pretty much alone but kept good speed as it was mostly downgrade and tailwind. Certain sections almost looked like a critical mass ride as the bikes were all over the rode in various sized groups at various speeds as well as auto traffic trying to get by miles of bikes. Got tired of saying on your left every other minute for the last hour of the ride. Not a bad course overall but didn't care for the overlap at the finish. Organizers avoided overlap at the start by segregating riders by speed but they really should work out different routes to avoid congestion at the end.
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