| Date | Name | Location | Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 3-4 | Heart of Texas (HOT) Recumbent Rally | Austin, TX | HOT |
| April 1 | RUSA - 200K/400K (ACP brevet) | Midland, TX | Apr 1 RUSA |
| April 14-15 | Bessie's Creek (6/12/24-hour race) | Brookshire, TX | Bessie's |
| June 2-3 | 24 Hours in the Canyon (6/12/24-hour race) | Amarillo, TX | Canyon |
| August 11 | Hotter N' Hell Hundred | Wichita Falls, TX | HnH |
| September 28-29 | Texas Time Trials (6/12/24-hour race) | Glen Rose, TX | TTT |
| November 17 | El Tour de Tucson | Tucson, AZ | El Tour |
| Entered | |
| Attended | |
| Cancelled |
The Heart of Texas event was held in Austin, TX on a moderately windy weekend. On Friday night David and John gave a presentation about the ROAM event held last summer. This presentation was attended by a surprisingly large number of people (perhaps no one had anything better to do :) ?
On Saturday, John rode on the 28-mile "speed" ride in his "Airmoose" BlueVelo Quest, while David and his wife Lois rode their TerraTrike Tandem together on the more laid back 13-mile ride. The "speed" ride was very fast heading south (rode mostly solo at 35mph in the Quest wishing for a higher gear). Heading north was slower as it was into the wind and more biased uphill (didn't look at speedometer so I am unsure of the speed other than no one matched my speed that way either). Both rides were enjoyed by all, although it would have been nice to have a couple more velomobiles to ride along with).
On Sunday, the ride was from Easy Street Recumbents down to the state
capital and back (with an extra loop through part of downtown for some willing
riders - John rode this section as well). John found out that Austin does have
some steep, although very short, hills (lowest gear). Two short discussions
(and some pictures) about the event were posted on the rbent (recumbent bicycle
enthusiasts of north texas) website at:
Discussion
A
Discussion B
On Saturday Mar 31, David and John rode on a RUSA permanent with 5 DF ("Diamond Frame" or "normal" bikes) riders. David rode the 100K route from Midland to Goldsmith and back, while John rode on the 200K "Roustabout" route that started on the same route as David until Goldsmith where it then went south of Odessa, and then back north to Gardendale before turning to Midland.
Although John rode at a moderate pace, he was 20 minutes ahead of David by Goldsmith (the rest of the riders were only 2-5 minutes farther behind David). John waited until the other riders were ready to go again (a total of 50 min stop time) before he left, intending on riding with the group. The "Airmoose" Quest just decided to roll along faster however and at the next stop John was about 15 min ahead of the group. This time John left 1-2 minutes before the others were ready to go (a 40 min total stop). On this third section John discovered that he hadn't been riding enough yet this year and slowed down quite a bit and arrived at the next stop only 5-min ahead of the others. After yet another longish stop @25 min long, they left together again and met up at the checkpoint in Gardendale for 5 min before the final short stretch back to Midland.
The final total time was 10 hrs 20 min, so the 200K was ridden by John in about 8.5 hrs. Not a great time, but with only @500 miles ridden since last November it was OK.
It was never clear to David or John what happened to the scheduled April 1 ride. No mention was made of it, so apparently our notification somehow fell through the cracks. No problem though as neither David nor John really felt like riding on Sunday morning.
topThis may turn out to be a bad idea for John as his total yearly mileage as of April 8 is only about 700 miles, with only one ride over 100 miles. Last year in the 12-hr, a Quest was ridden by Jacquie Hafner for 231 miles in only her second day of ownership. This spring she rode a Bacchetta in the Sebring 24-hr race for 512 miles. John is aware that her total of 231 miles is absolutely beyond his ability (for now), but is riding the 12-hr anyway just so he can set a reference point to base his further riding performances on. John expects to ride no less than 150 miles and has a goal to break 180 miles.
John rode 168 miles in 9.5 hours. Due to many stops, an unfamiliarity with endurance racing, and eating too little, he ended his ride before the scheduled 12 hours ended.
Although the ride was fun(ish), John was seriously underprepared to be trying to ride that far that fast. At the end of the first lap he was only behind four very experienced riders, but he then made his first of many essential stops to "de-water". He spent far too much time stopped, and not nearly enough pedaling.
The new Risse air shock John used during the ride worked incredibly well. Last year Jacquie put her Quest on its side when the rear end kicked out on the "sleep bumps" dug into the fog line. John purposely rode his Quest on the lines to determine how well the shock worked on known problem bumps and it was beautiful. The rear end was perfectly balanced and stable.
topDue to a bad storm and the associated flooding, this event was cancelled at the almost the last minute.
topDue to a timing conflict with his other job, John was unable to attend this event. This is a pity as this event was one we were looking forward to as the best way to promote velomobiles in the north Texas region due to the huge turnout of riders.
topJohn was still out of the area for job related reasons.
topJohn was still out of the area for job related reasons. A real pity as this is the second time John has missed this event (in 2010 he arrived too late in Tucson at the end of his ride from Michigan).
top