By far the best ride of the year! I was planning on doing the Road Kill Rally in Ardmore, but decided the night before that I would stay a little closer to home. Plus, I knew Danny and Michelle would be riding this one.

I arrived at the Rodeo Grounds at about 7am and quickly registered. I then got the bike ready, meet up with Danny and Michelle and kept an eye out for Nathan. He said he was going to try to make it, but never showed. I decided I was going to take a different approach to this ride. I wanted to go for speed rather than distance, so I decided to do the 40 mile route.

The ride started promptly at 8am, as a light rain started to fall. This was a fast course with very few hills and incredible traffic control, every intersection was manned, and many lanes were coned off just for cyclists. Never had to worry about the traffic and with about 1500 cyclist there was always a group close by draft off of.

I only stopped at 2 rest stops. Both were well stocked and well staffed. The 28 miles stop featured a three legged dog that was having the time of his life... everyone was feeding him cookies.

I finished the ride in 2 hour and 28 minutes with an average speed of 16.5 mph. I then made my way to the large Air Conditioned convention center and chow'd down on a free lunch from Outback Steakhouse.... we were also treated to Soft Drinks, Water, Chips and Ice Cream.

It completely amazed me, just how organized the entire event was. It was just a perfect ride and I look forward to doing it next year!

-blanca