Yesterday Phil and I did a charity ride for a local community that houses and supports physically and developmentally handicapped adults by teaching them skills and offering employment while enabling them to live in group homes in family style groups. In addition to a well known restaurant, and gift shop where they serve produce from their farm and sell items made in the community, they also have a nursery and grow and sell sod throughout the Houston area.
They take pride in the fact that they are" entirely self funded and take no government assistance. They earn over 4 million dollars a year from their enterprises and all of their employees come from the community and are paid well, have full benefits and are independent."
The reason I know this is that the ride was very full and they had made no arrangement to stagger the start by distances so all 2500 of us were packed into a long narrow driveway and being let out onto the road in small groups. We were at the end of the pack so it was nearly a half hour after the scheduled start by the time we got on the road,so we got to hear the spiel and publicity, shouted over a background of canned disco rock music, many times over and were reciting it along with the director of the community who was giving it. Aside from the ringing ears we didn't mind because this is an area we ride quite a bit in, we knew the route and we were just doing it to get out and ride, enjoy the weather and show community support.
It was a gorgeous day, really the first springlike day we have had all year. As we rode there were signs of spring everywhere, bright green growths of grass, foamy white Bradford pear trees blooming, here and there the dark purple pink of Redbud tree, washes of yellow green in the tops of most of the willows, oaks and assorted hardwoods, and lots of birds and birdsong.
All too soon the gentle spring zephyr breezes changed into the standard Texas headwind of 15-20 mph but even that wasn't too bad. We didn't even get phased, although we did get a bit confused, when TX DOT held everyone up with a stop sign for about 10 minutes while they waited at a section of freshly repaved road, to let the non existent (two cars and eventually a motorcycle) come through from the opposite direction on the single lane. Several people picked up their bikes and hoofed across the ditch to the parallel road to try and go around. It was no surprise when they came back because that road was completely closed down and impassible.
We were finally allowed to go through and ended up riding on fresh tar for a ways and then having to do a 90 degree unmarked split, to the right for the rest stop and to the left along a driveway/access road to get across the rails to the main highway in Wallis. At this point highway 36 has a nice smooth shoulder, but because of TX DOT , this was studded with gravel and mud. We rode several miles with the fresh tar on our wheels picking up every little piece of gravel and making noises like we were riding through corn flakes. When the gravle finally tapered off I spent about a mile, hunched over , letting the front and back wheel run through my gloved hand to knock off the majority of the gravel.
We had smooth riding, albeit, against the wind as always, along highway 36 headed for San Felipe, for a while until the road suddenly deteriorated to chip seal for 4 miles. This was not aged in chip seal, this was fresh tip of your thumb sized gravel in tar chip seal, guaranteed to vibrate the fillings out of your mouth, blur your vision, rattle your muscles, cause your hands to go numb, give you a headache, beat and bruise your nether regions not matter how you sit or stand, true Texas chew up barbed wire and spit out nails, hide toughening chip seal. Luckily just when I was about to admit that I would have to stand down off the bike until the world stopped vibrating we turned off onto FM 1458, a narrow, two lane country road wandering through pastures, ponds, trees, fields of cattle, an occasional stand of orange Indian Paintbrush and yellow Goat weed wildflowers and generally verdant landscape.
We were still tooling along at a comfortable rate,occasionally passing a group of bikers, with other groups ahead of us, the sun was warm, the traffic was light to almost non existent and I had just commented about the 6" or so of algae filled water standing in the shallow ditches along the side of the road, when Phil, who was riding ahead of me at this point, caught his front wheel on the edge and went over his handlebars into said ditch, ending up on his back with his bike on top of him. I panic stopped, ran back and had just lifted his bike off him when a group of ladies rode up. One already had her cell phone out ready to call 911 while another commented "wow, I have never seen anything like that before." Phil was protesting that he didn't need 911 or an ambulance, I was trying to help him up out of the ditch and the woman with the cell phone was arguing back that "what do you mean you're ok, you're lying in 6 " of water with your bike on top of you!" Phil said later that he was actually tempted to reply "yes, but I am out of the wind, cool and enjoying the bird song." Another group rode up and started looking down the road and trying to call for a ride marshal while another group stopped and started waving other riders by and cautioning traffic to slow down. It was general circus. In the meantime, Phil had extracted himself from the water and mud, sat down on the edge of the road and done a physical survey. He was soaking wet, mud coated, had a goose egg on his forehead and his hand was hurting badly. He seemed determined to get back on the bike and finish the 14 miles to make 50, but then a ride marshal rode up and assessed, while a SAG vehicle arrived and Phil finally conceded that he would have to call his ride, and sag in with his bike. Once the decision was made all of the riders who had stopped remounted and headed off to finish the ride while the SAG driver loaded up our bikes and I assembled the wet and muddy gear headband, gloves, helmet that he had taken off as well as the wet and muddy gear from his pockets (cell phone, garmin, keys , and nutrition bars) and climbed into the sag vehicle after him.
On the ride back to the start, we discovered that his finger was definitely broken and his other hand badly strained, he had several patches of road rash and was sore and tender along the right side of his torso. By the time we had driven the remaining 14 miles, we were able to laugh about it all, especially the argument with the lady with the cell phone. The ironic part of it all was that had we been able to do three more miles, the route would have turned so that we would have had a tailwind for the remaining 13 miles. Sigh...
This seems to be following the pattern of last fall when he kept having mechanical difficulties and or falling and not being able to finish the ride. In spite of it all, we both are feeling good about our speed average of 16.3 in spite of road crews, gravel encumbrances, head winds and chip seal, and we both were feeling very strong, so obviously the winter spin classes (Phil) and interval training (me) are showing some benefits. Now if the weather just cooperates so that we can get our road legs back before it gets nasty, hot and humid, we'll be golden.
In the meantime several people have offered to buy us training wheels and padded cages to ride in.
They take pride in the fact that they are" entirely self funded and take no government assistance. They earn over 4 million dollars a year from their enterprises and all of their employees come from the community and are paid well, have full benefits and are independent."
The reason I know this is that the ride was very full and they had made no arrangement to stagger the start by distances so all 2500 of us were packed into a long narrow driveway and being let out onto the road in small groups. We were at the end of the pack so it was nearly a half hour after the scheduled start by the time we got on the road,so we got to hear the spiel and publicity, shouted over a background of canned disco rock music, many times over and were reciting it along with the director of the community who was giving it. Aside from the ringing ears we didn't mind because this is an area we ride quite a bit in, we knew the route and we were just doing it to get out and ride, enjoy the weather and show community support.
It was a gorgeous day, really the first springlike day we have had all year. As we rode there were signs of spring everywhere, bright green growths of grass, foamy white Bradford pear trees blooming, here and there the dark purple pink of Redbud tree, washes of yellow green in the tops of most of the willows, oaks and assorted hardwoods, and lots of birds and birdsong.
All too soon the gentle spring zephyr breezes changed into the standard Texas headwind of 15-20 mph but even that wasn't too bad. We didn't even get phased, although we did get a bit confused, when TX DOT held everyone up with a stop sign for about 10 minutes while they waited at a section of freshly repaved road, to let the non existent (two cars and eventually a motorcycle) come through from the opposite direction on the single lane. Several people picked up their bikes and hoofed across the ditch to the parallel road to try and go around. It was no surprise when they came back because that road was completely closed down and impassible.
We were finally allowed to go through and ended up riding on fresh tar for a ways and then having to do a 90 degree unmarked split, to the right for the rest stop and to the left along a driveway/access road to get across the rails to the main highway in Wallis. At this point highway 36 has a nice smooth shoulder, but because of TX DOT , this was studded with gravel and mud. We rode several miles with the fresh tar on our wheels picking up every little piece of gravel and making noises like we were riding through corn flakes. When the gravle finally tapered off I spent about a mile, hunched over , letting the front and back wheel run through my gloved hand to knock off the majority of the gravel.
We had smooth riding, albeit, against the wind as always, along highway 36 headed for San Felipe, for a while until the road suddenly deteriorated to chip seal for 4 miles. This was not aged in chip seal, this was fresh tip of your thumb sized gravel in tar chip seal, guaranteed to vibrate the fillings out of your mouth, blur your vision, rattle your muscles, cause your hands to go numb, give you a headache, beat and bruise your nether regions not matter how you sit or stand, true Texas chew up barbed wire and spit out nails, hide toughening chip seal. Luckily just when I was about to admit that I would have to stand down off the bike until the world stopped vibrating we turned off onto FM 1458, a narrow, two lane country road wandering through pastures, ponds, trees, fields of cattle, an occasional stand of orange Indian Paintbrush and yellow Goat weed wildflowers and generally verdant landscape.
We were still tooling along at a comfortable rate,occasionally passing a group of bikers, with other groups ahead of us, the sun was warm, the traffic was light to almost non existent and I had just commented about the 6" or so of algae filled water standing in the shallow ditches along the side of the road, when Phil, who was riding ahead of me at this point, caught his front wheel on the edge and went over his handlebars into said ditch, ending up on his back with his bike on top of him. I panic stopped, ran back and had just lifted his bike off him when a group of ladies rode up. One already had her cell phone out ready to call 911 while another commented "wow, I have never seen anything like that before." Phil was protesting that he didn't need 911 or an ambulance, I was trying to help him up out of the ditch and the woman with the cell phone was arguing back that "what do you mean you're ok, you're lying in 6 " of water with your bike on top of you!" Phil said later that he was actually tempted to reply "yes, but I am out of the wind, cool and enjoying the bird song." Another group rode up and started looking down the road and trying to call for a ride marshal while another group stopped and started waving other riders by and cautioning traffic to slow down. It was general circus. In the meantime, Phil had extracted himself from the water and mud, sat down on the edge of the road and done a physical survey. He was soaking wet, mud coated, had a goose egg on his forehead and his hand was hurting badly. He seemed determined to get back on the bike and finish the 14 miles to make 50, but then a ride marshal rode up and assessed, while a SAG vehicle arrived and Phil finally conceded that he would have to call his ride, and sag in with his bike. Once the decision was made all of the riders who had stopped remounted and headed off to finish the ride while the SAG driver loaded up our bikes and I assembled the wet and muddy gear headband, gloves, helmet that he had taken off as well as the wet and muddy gear from his pockets (cell phone, garmin, keys , and nutrition bars) and climbed into the sag vehicle after him.
On the ride back to the start, we discovered that his finger was definitely broken and his other hand badly strained, he had several patches of road rash and was sore and tender along the right side of his torso. By the time we had driven the remaining 14 miles, we were able to laugh about it all, especially the argument with the lady with the cell phone. The ironic part of it all was that had we been able to do three more miles, the route would have turned so that we would have had a tailwind for the remaining 13 miles. Sigh...
This seems to be following the pattern of last fall when he kept having mechanical difficulties and or falling and not being able to finish the ride. In spite of it all, we both are feeling good about our speed average of 16.3 in spite of road crews, gravel encumbrances, head winds and chip seal, and we both were feeling very strong, so obviously the winter spin classes (Phil) and interval training (me) are showing some benefits. Now if the weather just cooperates so that we can get our road legs back before it gets nasty, hot and humid, we'll be golden.
In the meantime several people have offered to buy us training wheels and padded cages to ride in.
today's stats
distance 34.30 out of 50
speed 16.3
time- minus stops and road circus 2:05
1 comment:
If it's not one of you, it's the other! Sending healing thoughts to Phil!
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