Mike's Bike Blog

On Saturday I headed over to Bee Cave for the Southwest Cycle Sport ride. I left early to make it by the 7:30am roll out time. You see the previous week I got the start time wrong, for some reason I thought it started at 8. I missed the roll out so did the Dam Loop solo. So this time I left with ample time to get there, but I missed Peter's tweet and Facebook post saying it was too cold to ride.

After giving Peter, a Buffalo, NY native, grief about going soft for not riding in the 26 degree weather he said I still had time to get to the ATC ride, but to be prepared to hold on tight as it can be fast. I've heard from others that the ATC ride can be really fast. As I left the parking lot I briefly contemplated heading back home and going back to bed but headed downtown to give this ATC ride a try.

The first thing I'd like to point out, there was not one person on a tricycle. I figured I would be able to hold the wheel of anybody on a tricycle, but maybe it was too cold for them guys. I didn't do an exact head count but I'd estimate there were 12-14 riders at the start. Most the of the local race teams were represented Violet Crown, Velossimo, Austin Bikes and AT&T all had several riders representing. There were a couple of guys on tri bikes as well. I was expecting to see more tri guys, but roadies seemed to be the dominate riders.

We rolled out at a fairly casual pace making our way to MoPac and then over to Southwest Parkway. I was told it was at this point that the hammer starts to come down.  On the rollers of Southwest Parkway I averaged 21.8 mph. The pace on the bigger hills was very manageable and there was times when the wheel I was following would start to lose contact with the group and I'd have to pull around and bridge the small gap before I'd get dropped.

On 71 the pace quickened once again, I averaged 24 mph from Southwest Parkway to Bee Cave. On the final hill leading into Bee Cave the group started to get strung out, I got out of the saddle and bridged up to the guy who was pushing the pace and followed him up. We regrouped at Bee Cave Parkway, 1/2 the group took the short route (30 miles) and headed back to the ATC shop via Bee Cave Parkway. The rest of us continued on to 620.

The group never really seemed to get organized, we did get a paceline going but nobody really rotated through. There seemed to be 1 strong rider pulling us all along, found out later his name was Stan, he was in town from Baton Rouge, LA. He never really pulled off per se, but as the pace would drop a little I would go around him and try to kick it up a little and push the pace to 24-26 mph at times.  At one point I couldn't get anybody to pull through and I was starting to get thirsty so I pulled to the right hoping someone would come through but had to take in some Heed so I wouldn't get dehydrated.  At the Dam coming up the hill at Steiner Ranch Stan opened up a lead as I got stuck behind everybody going up a little slower. This section of road is not condusive to passing riders as every few feet there's drainage grates that take up 3/4 of the lane. This makes going around people a littl hard. As we made it to the top at Hippie Hollow Stan had opened up a sizeable gap. I made my way up to the front and set the pace to try and reel in Stan. I hit top end speed of 28 mph, luckily he caught caught at the light so I didn't have to burn too much catching him. At the 2222/620 intersection the group decided to continue on to Anderson Mill and take Spicewood Springs to 360. Stan and I pushed the pace and when we turned off of Anderson Mill there was only 4 of us left. I'm not sure what happened to everyone else if we dropped them or if they decided to cut it short and go back via 2222.

At 360 one of the riders bid us farewell as he turned and headed the opposite direction on 360. That left Stan, Chris (one of the few guys on a tri bike) and myself. Chris and Stan were from out of town so that left me to navigate us back to the shop.

This was a fun ride, I was really expecting to get dropped at some point and that didn't happen nor was there any place I felt like I was riding over my limit trying to stay on. In fact I pushed the pace and took my fair share of pulls. I'll have to go back to give this group another go and see if the cold was keeping the true hammerfest riders home and maybe see if any of the tricycles make the ride.