no falls, no road rash, life is good
Apr. 24th, 2007 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asimplechord My buttocks are not touching a bike seat for at least a week. They'd probably be sore after 150 miles in any case, but the guys at the bike shop took it upon themselves to "fix" my bike seat when MrIris took it in for the ride-ready inspection. Never mind that I had adjusted it after each ride until it was in a position that I liked.
The MS150 was a lot of work and a lot of fun. I was afraid it was going to be gross and rainy because it was really wet and foggy Saturday morning - the start was delayed by nearly an hour because it wasn't safe for bikers in the fog - but it all worked out. (Yeah, sitting in the cold fog until 7am made me really glad I got up at 4:15 to be there and ready to go by 5:45am. Really.) The clouds kept it from getting too hot, and we never had a strong direct headwind.
This event is sponsored by BP, and the major bicycling teams would fill a Who's Who of petroleum, engineering, and energy companies: Conoco-Philips, ExxonMobile, BP, El Paso, Halliburton, Anadarko, Chevron, Total, Schlumberger, Shell, Bechtel, and Dow. Can't forget Dow, since that's the team I was on. I suppose if we rode in the MS150 in some other city or state, it would be whatever major industry that city is known for that dominates the teams. *shrug* There were other corporate teams, but the petrochemical ones all seemed to pack together in the tent city at the mid-way point. And at the start. Perhaps they all got the organized start-times because their captains and leaders all know each other?
Day 1: Really hilly, especially late in the day. Once we were out of Houston, we went through lots of small towns and past lots of ranches and farms. People were out at the end of their ranch roads, cheering and playing music - one guy played a fiddle for hours while bikers passed - and just generally being nice. Some of the scenery was gorgeous; rolling pastureland was visible for miles, sometimes covered with bluebonnets and indian paintbrush, so it looked like fields of purple or blue and red. Lots of riders stopped and took pictures. At some points, on the crests of hills, I could look out and see the road over the next few hills, stretched out for miles with hundreds of riders moving like an army of ants traveling across the countryside. (There were ~12000 riders, I think.)
This was the longer day. By the time we got to La Grange and the tent city, I was exhausted. My philosophy for biking the hills is to go hard and not stop - I will not be that person walking their bike over the crest of the hill. And that kept us on pace. We skipped the last rest-stop, even though it was actually sunny and we were both hot and tired, because it was the Halliburton-sponsored one, and I couldn't bring myself to do it. We shared luke-warm water from my water bottle and kept going. I think it took us about five hours to bike eighty-three miles.
By the time I got to the Dow tent, I was ready to forgive Dow anything. Bhopal? Happened before they bought Carbide. Agent Orange? The US govt forced them to make it on a scale that made removing residual dioxin impossible. Why so forgiving? Free thirty minute massages. It hurt so good....
Day 2: Once again up at the butt-crack of dawn. Bikes checked, water bottles filled, back into the pack. The worst part of the ride was six of the first ten miles here. The road was repaved with packed gravel, and was rough. The MS150 committee sent out an email warning us about it, and we could feel it in the car when we took it to Austin on Friday, so you can imagine how it felt on a road bike with no shocks. The worst was going downhill on it, because the friction sapped so much momentum that would normally help on the next uphill. The route was pretty nice though, with low rolling hills and some flat. There was one loooonngg hill that, driving home today, I looked back at and thought, "We biked up that? Without stopping? Holy shit!"
More hills when we got into Austin, short but steep. There was one really bad moment: a bad accident, requiring neck brace and back-board at the bottom of a hill. I think it was just too many bikers in a pack going too fast and wheels touched, but it freaked everyone out. There hadn't been any serious injuries on Day1 - just two people who were a bit dehydrated - and it was so close to the end (less than five miles to the finish) that no one was expecting it.
So. Big team photo finish, since Dow was making a film for public relations. Yay. (Not.) About four hours to bike that sixty-seven miles.
Then, instead of taking the bus back to Houston, we loaded everything into the car and found our hotel. Hot water and a mattress were declared the Greatest Inventions Ever. We got cleaned up (and I checked the sports scores and realized that the Devils had won their series) and went out, wandered down Sixth St. Ah, Austin. :)
I am SO not going to want to go to work in the morning. Can't I just continue my sorta kinda not quite vacation?
The MS150 was a lot of work and a lot of fun. I was afraid it was going to be gross and rainy because it was really wet and foggy Saturday morning - the start was delayed by nearly an hour because it wasn't safe for bikers in the fog - but it all worked out. (Yeah, sitting in the cold fog until 7am made me really glad I got up at 4:15 to be there and ready to go by 5:45am. Really.) The clouds kept it from getting too hot, and we never had a strong direct headwind.
This event is sponsored by BP, and the major bicycling teams would fill a Who's Who of petroleum, engineering, and energy companies: Conoco-Philips, ExxonMobile, BP, El Paso, Halliburton, Anadarko, Chevron, Total, Schlumberger, Shell, Bechtel, and Dow. Can't forget Dow, since that's the team I was on. I suppose if we rode in the MS150 in some other city or state, it would be whatever major industry that city is known for that dominates the teams. *shrug* There were other corporate teams, but the petrochemical ones all seemed to pack together in the tent city at the mid-way point. And at the start. Perhaps they all got the organized start-times because their captains and leaders all know each other?
Day 1: Really hilly, especially late in the day. Once we were out of Houston, we went through lots of small towns and past lots of ranches and farms. People were out at the end of their ranch roads, cheering and playing music - one guy played a fiddle for hours while bikers passed - and just generally being nice. Some of the scenery was gorgeous; rolling pastureland was visible for miles, sometimes covered with bluebonnets and indian paintbrush, so it looked like fields of purple or blue and red. Lots of riders stopped and took pictures. At some points, on the crests of hills, I could look out and see the road over the next few hills, stretched out for miles with hundreds of riders moving like an army of ants traveling across the countryside. (There were ~12000 riders, I think.)
This was the longer day. By the time we got to La Grange and the tent city, I was exhausted. My philosophy for biking the hills is to go hard and not stop - I will not be that person walking their bike over the crest of the hill. And that kept us on pace. We skipped the last rest-stop, even though it was actually sunny and we were both hot and tired, because it was the Halliburton-sponsored one, and I couldn't bring myself to do it. We shared luke-warm water from my water bottle and kept going. I think it took us about five hours to bike eighty-three miles.
By the time I got to the Dow tent, I was ready to forgive Dow anything. Bhopal? Happened before they bought Carbide. Agent Orange? The US govt forced them to make it on a scale that made removing residual dioxin impossible. Why so forgiving? Free thirty minute massages. It hurt so good....
Day 2: Once again up at the butt-crack of dawn. Bikes checked, water bottles filled, back into the pack. The worst part of the ride was six of the first ten miles here. The road was repaved with packed gravel, and was rough. The MS150 committee sent out an email warning us about it, and we could feel it in the car when we took it to Austin on Friday, so you can imagine how it felt on a road bike with no shocks. The worst was going downhill on it, because the friction sapped so much momentum that would normally help on the next uphill. The route was pretty nice though, with low rolling hills and some flat. There was one loooonngg hill that, driving home today, I looked back at and thought, "We biked up that? Without stopping? Holy shit!"
More hills when we got into Austin, short but steep. There was one really bad moment: a bad accident, requiring neck brace and back-board at the bottom of a hill. I think it was just too many bikers in a pack going too fast and wheels touched, but it freaked everyone out. There hadn't been any serious injuries on Day1 - just two people who were a bit dehydrated - and it was so close to the end (less than five miles to the finish) that no one was expecting it.
So. Big team photo finish, since Dow was making a film for public relations. Yay. (Not.) About four hours to bike that sixty-seven miles.
Then, instead of taking the bus back to Houston, we loaded everything into the car and found our hotel. Hot water and a mattress were declared the Greatest Inventions Ever. We got cleaned up (and I checked the sports scores and realized that the Devils had won their series) and went out, wandered down Sixth St. Ah, Austin. :)
I am SO not going to want to go to work in the morning. Can't I just continue my sorta kinda not quite vacation?
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no subject
Date: 2007-04-24 05:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-24 09:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-24 09:19 pm (UTC)Oi! Yes. That's why I always avoid participating in that sort of thing. I hate collecting.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-24 05:54 am (UTC)A better man than I, Gungadin. ;)
no subject
Date: 2007-04-24 09:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-24 05:59 am (UTC)I can't even imagine doing something like that.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-24 09:16 pm (UTC)There was a paraplegic rider in a bike that he propelled by hand. 150 miles. I just can't even imagine the upper-body strength that must take.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-24 06:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-24 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-24 06:48 am (UTC)*in awe* Good for you! Sounds fantastic! Yeah, I couldn't do that. No way, no how. Glad yer back.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-24 09:19 pm (UTC)I'm sooooo behind on the f-list it's not even funny. How's your stuff going? Ready for showtime?
no subject
Date: 2007-04-24 07:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-24 09:21 pm (UTC)