360 dam loop ride 4-29-03

[Griz]

any mojos hitting this ride tonight?

[kracer]

I am planning on being there....

[Griz]

even after a tough weekend at Ft. Davis? what an animal!

BTW how did it go? I saw something that had you finishing 5th. Is this true? If so, nice job!

[J]

I searched, but couldn't find the "dam loop" route in any old posts. I've probably ridden it or parts of it but just not like it's done on Tuesday nights.

What is the route? How fast is the ride? Typical fast pack slow pack, scragglers in the middle?

Thanks.

[chongo]

Originally posted by 853
What is the route? How fast is the ride? Typical fast pack slow pack, scragglers in the middle?

From Davenport Village..360 - Bee Cave - 71 - 620 -2222-360. When time allows the ride hits Riverplace off of 2222 which goes to City Park Rd. Some folks also throw in Court Yard for that "little extra climbing" at the end.

avg speed had been about 20mph. the re-group point is 71-620.

[sangulo]

i'll be out there, might wind up meeting you guys at that first gas station regroup on bee caves road.

[J]

Cool, thanks. 6 pm?

[chongo]

I heard there might be a small group of girls out there tonight, including sangulo's GF and my wife. jo_mc, you listening?

[sangulo]

Originally posted by 853
Cool, thanks. 6 pm?

just in case, fyi...6 pm is the actual rollout time.

[chongo]

Originally posted by 853
Cool, thanks. 6 pm?

Group rolls out at 6:00pm Meet at the old Cycle 360 location.

[kracer]

Hey Matt,
No i actually got 3rd overall. It was so much fun, even though it was sooooo painful. Below is a description of how it went down.

Stage 1- 16 mile TT.
I had a good TT i was able to pass 4 guys that started ahead of me. I thought at first that i may be going to hard and that i might blow up but kept it going. I finished 4th.

Stage 2- 15 mile hill climb.
I was really excited about this stage i felt i had a good chance at winning this one until we hit the first big hill... Then i knew that i just didn't have it in my legs. I think i put to much in the TT but i was able to stay in the front group up the long climb. By the time we turned into the park ,which was somewhat flat before the real hard climb started, there was about 11 of us left in the group. Then there was a surge at the start of the steep climb and i knew that i couldn't go with them so i chose to just ride at my own pace( which seemed to be at a slow crawl). I was out of the saddle the whole way up the climb and then i started to pass guys from the group and even saw some guys pushing their bikes up the climb. Then as I came around a corner i saw the devil shouting at me and telling me that i was 5th and to keep it up. This was just what i needed to get me to the top.

Stage 3- 34 mile RR.

Well after finishing stage 2 I was in 3rd place in the GC and i had about 1 min on the 4th place guy and was 1 min out of 2nd. I got back to the room and was so exhausted and really did not feel good. My roommates on the other hand seemed to be doing alot better than i was and so that worried me alot. I was able to get about 7 hrs of sleep and woke up still feeling run down. At this time i felt that i would not hold on to 3rd because we were going back up the same climb that was in stage 2 then down into a valley, turn around and climb back out of the valley. So there would be more climbing in stage 3 than there was in stage 2. OUCH!!!!! Well the race started and of course it did not start off slow like i was hoping. Guys kept going off the front so the pace was pretty high then we hit the climbs. I was about mid pack when we hit the first hill and as it started to climb i notice that i was moving up to the front and that everyone was dropping off. About 10 minutes into the climb i turned around an
d saw that the group was down to 6 of us and to my amazement i was feeling really good going up the climb. At the top of the climb there was only 5 of us left and then i knew that i could hold on and thats what i did. On the climb out of the valley 2 guys got off the front and the 3 of us just decided to let them go because there was not any chance of loosing our GC placing. And the finish was up a small climb and i was able to attack and get 3rd in the stage. So thats the short story....Ha. But i have to say that you all missed a really fun race and if you can you should definately go next year.

[Griz]

wow, congrats! that is a fantastic story.

I can't believe there were guys walking their bikes up the climb! That must've been one steep bitch of a hill.

[sangulo]

Originally posted by kracer
Then as I came around a corner i saw the devil shouting at me and telling me that i was 5th and to keep it up. This was just what i needed to get me to the top.


I still think this is where you started hallucinating...are you sure this "trip" you were on was actually to bike race or was it just some desert pilgrimmage to go find yourself through peyote-induced stupors?

[J]

What CAT were you racing?

[chongo]

Originally posted by 853
What CAT were you racing?

kracer is a sandbagging Cat 5 road racer! :D

[J]

Like Griz and John_Curtis!

:D

We had the bakery ride this am. It was like CAT 13. :rolleyes:

[Griz]

Originally posted by 853
Like Griz and John_Curtis!

actually, john stinks. he should be in cat 5.

[kracer]

I am now an official CAT 4... Got my sticker and everything.

[Griz]

did you do the mandetory 10 races?

[john_curtis]

Originally posted by Griz
actually, john stinks. he should be in cat 5.

I'm going to come out and prove you right. Every muscle aches from my paydirt yesterday.

Actually Griz, how many road races have you beaten me in? What about cross races? MTB time trials? :D

[Griz]

JC - you going to hit this ride tonight?

[kracer]

I think i have 8 races under my belt but Bonnie saw that i had some good results and the 3rd at ft davis helped..... So she went ahead and let me move up. Plus i told her about how all the cat 4 guys were giving me sh@t about still being a cat 5.

[kracer]

Yeah come out and we will see who beats who up the dam climb.:D :eek:

[john_curtis]

I'm coming out. Not feeling too hot today, so I may take it a bit easy. We'll see how I feel once I get on the bike.

[Raycer X]

would love to join you guys but, I feel if I put any pressure on my knee.. it will explode!!!

[kracer]

Boy, my legs are hurting for some reason......:D