Bluebonnet Express

I rode in my first orgainzied ride this year, the Bluebonnet Express. This year there were three routes, 25 miles, 45 miles and 65 miles. Last year when I did this ride I chose the longest route. This year, since I have not done as much training I decided to take it a little easy and chose the 45 mile route.

The orgainzers changed the start from the county fair grounds to Texas A&M University, probably hoping that they would not have the same problems with traffic that they had last year. It was a nice try. I had already picked up my ride packet on Friday but I decided to arrive a little early just in case there was traffic. Boy, was there traffic. I was about an hour early and there was a mile of traffic waiting to exit off of the freeway.

It was cool and windy, I finished my cup of coffee and then waited in the extremely long line for the port-o-potty. It seems the organizers must have underestimeted the number of people that were riding or were trying to save money. I heard a number of people say that there were about 3000 riders this year. When that many people drive an hour or more drinking coffee, you had better have enough port-o-johns waiting. Enough said.

Next, I grabbed my bike and headed over to the maintenance tent to air up my tires. I pumped up my tires and then while removing the pump valve I tore the innertube. After changing the flat I headed to the starting line where I heard the announcement that the start of the ride was to be delayed due to the large number of riders still trying to get off of the freeway. By the time we finally started I needed to find another port-o-john.

As I said it was windy and hard going. I ran into my brother Jeff at the first rest stop. It's funny that we always run into each other on these rides. Jeff has done more riding this year and said he was going to do the 65 miles route, so I figured that I wouldn't see him again after the turn off where my route heads back toward the start but about a mile or so from the finish I caught up to him. He said that he changed his mind about the longer route when he realized that most of it would be against the wind. I lost him as I was pedaling to the finish against the wind and up hill. They should really try to plan the routes so that you always finish downhill with the wind at your back.