BVC-CHAT Mayday Wrapup

[Christopher Menzel]

On Jun 24, 2007, at 10:57 AM, Jean Marie Linhart wrote:
> Someone on the BVMBA (mountain bike) list asked how the Mayday went,
> and I figured a wrap-up might be good here too.
>
> From the ride side, it was good.

I'd say excellent! :-)  Awesome weather conditions, esp for late June  
-- overcast skies, relatively low temps, and almost no wind.  Just  
great.

The fast group rode pretty aggressively for the first 40 miles or so,  
which included a couple of hard pushes, especially when we hit the  
Tuesday TNP section of the ride along 2038/Cobb/Grassbur and lizard  
brain instincts took over and the ride transmogified briefly into a  
fully-fledged TNP-style hammerfest.  (Willie played the role of the  
lizard brain here, as he went around inciting the TNP regulars to  
light it up on the 2038 hill. :-)  I was pleasantly surprised by the  
fact that pretty much the entire group (maybe 25 riders?) was still  
together by the time we eased up on the gas at Elmo Weedon.   
(Saturday flagpole regulars were especially proud of new recruit Bill  
Bowers who'd hung in there very well, looking only slightly worse for  
the wear. :-)  I didn't know a lot of these guys, but I'm pretty sure  
most of them are locals.  I hope we can get them to start showing up  
for some of our regular rides.

After the TNP section we rode pretty steadily til near the end.  We  
missed the rest stop at 30 and Birdpond, as it was a block off 30 and  
we weren't watching for it, so a lot of riders were low on fluids by  
the time we did the southern Rock Prairie/Peach Creek loop, so we  
stopped en masse at the Exxon at Hwy 6 and Fitch to restock.  After  
the turn onto Birdpond off Rock Prairie the pace hotted up again --  
this is part of the alternative TNP route, so Lizard-in-Chief Willie  
probably couldn't help himself  -- and the pack finally shattered  
apart when Willie, Steve G, and David R laid down a merciless pace on  
the long rise about 2/3 of the way down Birdpond (usually the crux of  
the TNP rides), whittling the group down to about ten riders.  Roy C  
saw to it that there would be no let up when he went off the front at  
the top of the rise, and after a brief respite to turn back onto 30  
for the final leg we had a (for a number of us -- well, me anyway,  
whose thighs were starting to cramp -- not at all welcome) final  
hammerfest back to the church.  Great, painful fun.

What *was* welcome were the excellent free massages offered by Austin  
School of Massage (?) back at the church.  I had strained my back a  
bit moving stuff around the house on Friday, so I was pretty stiff  
when I got off the bike.  The therapist worked on my back for at  
least 20 minutes to loosen it up -- how cool is that?!  I think that  
really saved me from some serious discomfort later in the day.

This was a really fun, well-organized ride for a good cause that I  
will certainly help to support next year.  There appeared to be a  
fine turn out (a couple hundred folks?) and I'll bet, with a little  
more advertising and promotion, it could easily double in size.  The  
routes they picked show off the nice riding we have in the area very  
well.  I suspect the organizers could attract a sizable number of out- 
of-towners with an appealing, widely-distributed promo.

-chris