Today I rode in the “Beauty and the Beast Tour” in Tyler, TX. Nathan, Burt and I headed towards Tyler last night and stayed in a 30' trailer on Nathan’s Parents property near Canton.

After a horrible nights sleep, we woke up promptly at 6:00AM, got our things together and make our way to the UT Tyler Campus for the start of the ride. The night before, the weather forecast said Sunny Skies and temps in the low 60’s at 8AM...... not even close! It was cloudy and about 48. Then about 5 miles into the ride, we encountered a light rain that steadily picked up as the ride when on. This made for a very cold and wet day.

The start of the ride was a cluster f***. All riders starting from what appeared to be three different areas, all at the same time and all merging onto the main road leading out of the UT Campus. About halfway down that road we encountered two vehicles trying to make it into the campus parking lot. Cyclists were swerving in every direction trying to avoid these two vehicles and each other. Luckily, no one went down. After that mess, things started to look a little better. I completely missed the first rest stop, and apparently so did all the other riders I spoke with. I saw the signs, but nothing else. Oh well, I wouldn’t have stopped anyway.

The roads on this route were great and the traffic support, for the most part, was good. I only had one problem and that was with a flag girl, at the 64 mile turn in Troup, she was not paying attention and waited until the last minute to show herself and flag me/us in the right direction, which caused me to have to make a sharp turn on wet pavement..... not good! I almost busted ass!

Shortly after Rest Stop #3, a gentlemen by the name of Paul pull up beside me and we keep pace with each other for the remainder of the ride. Not long after that, the rain really started to come down and my computer stopped working. It stopped at 23.98 miles and showed my average speed at 16.2 mph. Not bad considering the terrain and weather. At this point I was considering cutting the ride short and only doing the 50 mile route. I was cold, wet and wasn’t sure if I could make it up “The Beast”, but when Paul and I stopped at rest stop #4, he talked me into doing 64 mile route. So we hopped back on our bikes and prepared for the climb ahead. We were told to start looking for the first part of the climb at around mile 30 and sure enough there it was, a steady climb up Mt. Selman. The first half of the climb was steep but nothing to difficult. The second half was much steeper (around 200ft in about a ¼ mile), but it was fairly short. Though we saw numerous people walking it, Paul and I both make it up with no problems. We just dropped down to our lowest gears and spun our way to the top.

We were now at the halfway point and the rain was starting to lighten up a bit, but we were now heading directly into a 14mph wind. I found myself looking forward to hills and dreading fast descents. The descents were just too damn cold. We continued at a much slower pace, until we reached Rest Stop #6. By this time the rain had stopped and it was starting to warm up. One of the SAG support guys asked me if we needed a ride back to the start, but before I could open my mouth, Paul said “Hell No! we didn’t ride this damn far to SAG back in, were gonna finish it up!”

The next 17 miles were just incredible, the scenery was amazing and the Sun finally showed itself. We rode around Lake Tyler and were just having a blast racing up the final hills. The Sun seemed to revive me. On one hill in particular (around mile 55), I took off and attacked it. I passed 7 or 8 other cyclists and it seemed as if they were standing still.... Paul still managed to pass me with about 10 feet to go, but I have never felt so good climbing a hill, I wasn’t tired and had no pain in the legs.... nothing but unspent energy. It was an incredible feeling!

We finished the ride in about 4 hours and 12 minutes, with an Average speed of 15.2 mph and total elevation gain of 3000ft. The route was challenging and absolutely beautiful. The volunteers were friendly. This was by far the prettiest ride of the year and I look forward to doing it next year……