It turns out, they were planning on riding the Cross Timbers Classic and that there wouldn't be a group ride this morning.
The CTC is an organized ride for charity that starts over at Texas Motor Speedway and makes it way into my city before heading back. They offer distances of 10, 30, 50, 100K, and 100 miles. It is supported with a few rest stops, bath rooms, sag wagon, and they have food and beer at the finish.
You could register at the event, so I decided late last night to give it a go and it turned out to be a great choice because the ride was fun.
I ran into to my buddy, neighbor, and co-worked David just prior to the start, and we hooked up to do the first 25 miles together. David is 9 weeks out from IM Lake Placid and had a 100 miler, (his third in this training block) on the schedule for this morning.
The ride starts in the center of the Texas Motor Speedway oval, which is a 1.5 mile NASCAR track that holds 2 races annually.
It was cool getting inside there. I'd never been, so I didn't appreciate the size of this thing. It holds well over 200,000 people on race day.
The ride starts out with 1 lap around the track which was a blast. We started by the garages, made our way out on to pit row, and where up on the track. The bankings were ridiculous (45 degrees), and we rode along the bottom of the first turn. David had been in there before and showed me how to get up on top of the banking at the start of the second turn. Riding up there was a rush. You're a good 20 feet in elevation above the bottom of the track, it is like a shear drop down to the bottom, and you are just praying your tires give you enough grip to keep you from sliding down, while trying not to stub your uphill pedal on the track. One stub and you'd fall right down to the bottom.
The ride was good, the weather was great, and I got in a pretty decent 57 miles. Averaged 170 watts, 146 HR, and 18.0 mph.
2 comments:
It was good to ride with again, Greg. I'm glad you enjoyed riding up high on the turns as much as I did. That's pretty much the whole reason I do this rally as we ride the other roads all the time.
Good luck at CapTex, and be sure to post a race report here on your blog. I'm subscribed to it, so I get notified every time you post!
Thanks David. Way to crush another big volume week. You'll fly up the mtn's of Lake Placid. No doubt.
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