I was signed up for the 50mile course for this years Pedal Thru the Pines, Jon, my riding buddy from Keller Williams joined me on the short trek to Bastrop. We got there early and got our swag. I must say the Pedal thru the Pines has the best t-shirt so far. Neither Jon nor myself has ever ridden the course before, it was Jon's first time to Bastrop and it was my first time going through the National Parks. We both were under the false impression that it was going to be relatively flat. The start was at the Bastrop High School, the 67 milers got the start first and then it was us in the 50 mile group. Looking back at it I don't think everybody that was in the 67 or the 50 mile start were doing those courses and were just trying to get a head start, which was somewhat problematic later on. It was a slow as the pack of riders headed out from the High School and made our way to 95. The State Patrol were directing traffic so we didn't have to wait at the light as we turned left onto Highway 150. We had our first little climb going up 150 to the park entrance. I was just trying to stay on the left side to get past the swam of riders that were already slowing on the first climb. We navigated our way up the hill and into the park. Once we were in the park this is where it got really interesting. The park roads are narrow and winding with a lot of loose gravel and rocks. Normally it wouldn't be too bad, but with the number of riders there was not much room to navigate.
I haven't done a lot of events, but this was the first time I've seen grown adults just fall right over on a climb. I can't tell you the number of times I saw people in front of me just fall right over. They didn't even clip out! So you had to weave through people that would just come to a complete stop going up the hill and push their bikes up, but you also had to watch out for people that would just fall right over. On one of the hills I had a rider go down in front of me and then another guy just cut right in front of me trying to get over to the left side of the road and proceed to topple right over. I lost all momentum and was in the wrong gear for the loss of speed. I had to really muscle my way up the climb but I made it up. Through these climbs Jon and I got separated a couple times. I thought Jon had gotten ahead of me when I lost my momentum on the climb, but I later found out that he got a flat and had to do a quick change. As I was going through the Parks I couldn't help but get a little worried that it seemed we were going down a lot more than we were going up so that had me a little worried as what goes down has to come back up to get to the finish.
Once we got out of the park it was onto Highway 153. This stretch all the way to Winchester for the most part was flat and open cattle grazing fields. The was a bit of wind but nothing too bad, I caught on a couple of pace lines, hanging on for a bit and then I'd make a move to the next one. I got passed by a pack of about 6 riders and I was going to jump on but the group I was in was going a lot slower and I didn't cease the opportunity and then I got stuck with traffic coming up behind me that I missed them. I almost caught them at Winchester, they stopped at the rest stop while I turned around and made my way back. I was expecting them to catch me at some point, but as it turned out nobody passed me on the way back. At the finish they came in about 3 minutes after me.
From Winchester the course double backs on 153 and to Highway 71. On 71 I caught up with the people that were doing the lower mileage. The hills on 71 weren't too bad, I was able to keep my speed up. There were quite a few riders getting off and pushing up the hills though. I made it to the finish line in 2:41:33. My average speed was 17.6mph, my average heart rate was 158, cadence average was 75.
All in all this was a great ride, I had a great time, the t-shirt is nice. Next year I'll have to do the 67 mile course and be sure to get out in front early to avoid the falling riders. Here is my motionbased.com stats for the ride.
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