Mike's Bike Blog

A father in my son's Jack's cub scout den, Ken, a fellow cyclist invited me out to the VOIP Saturday group ride. He meets the group in front of Rudy's BBQ on Hwy 360. On Friday night I emailed Ken saying I was on for the ride. We didn't have a set plan, I knew he left his house at 6:15 as he rides down from Cedar Park. I tried to get to his house at 6:15 to meet him, but I got there a little late at 6:19. I checked my email and saw that he emailed me to meet him at the corner of El Salido and 620 at 6:25. There was no way I could get there in 5 minutes but I took off. I got there at 6:29 but no sign of Ken. I wasn't sure if he was running late so I waited till 6:40.

Running this far behind I couldn't take my normal route to 360, I was going to have to take a direct route. Ken said he takes 2222 to 360, I've never went down the big hill on 2222, in fact it is something I vowed I would never do. Riding along side cars going 65-80 mph  with no shoulder never appealed to me. Although the shoulder was widened last year on the stretch approaching the hill, but the decent down the hill you still have to take the lane. Luckily it was early morning still and the car traffic was light. I bombed down the hill reaching 50 mph and thankfully not one car passed me.

I still had to navigate 360 and climb the hills. It was going to be close as to whether or not I would make it to the rendezvous point by 7:30am. I passed quite a few cyclists on the hills and I was passed by one rider as well. This guy looked the part on his Cervelo and matching kit. He was an older gentleman with graying hair, wafer thin. He was probably 5'6" and 135 pounds. I debated if I should grab his wheel, but I was already teetering on my red line and figured I'd be completely blown if I did.

I got to Rudy's at 7:35 and luckily Ken and a small group was waiting but the damage had been done, I'd spent the past hour going full throttle to get there on time that I was spent. I would guess there were about 18 people in the group as we rolled down 360 heading to MoPac. This version of the Dam Loop is probably a bit closer to the classic version as it goes down Southwest Parkway to 71 and down 71 to Bee Caves. I've never ridden this portion of the Dam Loop. I typically will go up Bee Caves Road to Bee Cave and I've never ridden on 71. I was a bit skeptical about it as I wasn't sure how big the shoulder was. For the most part it is quite rideable I think there was only one short bridge section where I felt it to be a bit questionable.

Back to the ride. As we hit the longer climb up Southwest Parkway, before Barton Springs Road my legs were already protesting. We hit this hill maintaining 20 mph going up. Close to the top the speed knocked up a mile or two and I couldn't counter. I slowly drifted off the back, but kept the main group in sight.  The group was already split in 2, the main group that I just got dropped from and then another group. I was between the 2. I rode by myself to Bee Caves picking off a few riders here and there that got dropped from the main group.

I also got dropped on 620, after a light of all places. We stop at the light and I'm expecting a slow roll out, so I'm not paying close attention, getting clipped in. I look up and everybody has taken off. I did catch up to the 2nd group and rode with them down 620 to the next regroup stop at the Walgreens on the corner of 620 and 2222.

The home stretch was fairly mild as we rode 620 to Anderson Mill Road. Ken and me departed from the group from there as they turned down Anderson Mill to head back to 360 and we headed the opposite direction into Cedar Park.

Next time I will have to roll to the start at a better pace so I'm not shelled before I arrive. Looking at my overall power file my average watts were below what I expected. The entire ride only averaged 201 watts. That could be partly do to sitting in at the back of the group. But looking at key efforts the average was still below what I would have thought. The effort felt harder than what the file indicates.

Stats:
Distance: 56.73
Kj: 2202
Power: Avg: 201 Max: 849