Austin to Fort Worth is a bike ride loosely associated with the Fort Worth Bicycling Association. It occurs every year sometime after Easter. I attended for the third time this past weekend. At the request of Gary Gottlieb, I shared a room for both nights of this trip that spent the first night in Austin and the second in Waco, Texas.
We stopped by Art's house before heading to Austin to see him probably for the last time. We all went to see him knowing the battle of the last 10 years has taken about every ounce of strength left the man had left in past few months. His family was there at this side as we spent about 15 minutes visiting. Art has been the clubs' greatest ambassador for many years and he welcomed me on my first trip with FWBA at Austin to Fort Worth in 2005. Art touched everyone he met. It will truly be a sad day here in the near future.
About 24 people rode various stages of the two day event. The main topic and main obstacle for the festivities was a very imposing north wind that moved into the area over the weekend. It was a far cry from the tailwind festival it has been in years past.
Day 1) We had a pretty functional group the first day for many miles. I am guilty of ratcheting up the pace to rid myself of the dead weight sometimes but that didn't happen Saturday, at least not on purpose. Gary and I worked most of the trip together and the first day, the effort lasted the entire ride except for my time on the tandem with John's wife, Susan. I run gps on my bikes for long trips and I had the entire course preloaded for the weekend so getting lost was out of the question. For the most part of Saturday we really didn't slow down at all covering the 102 miles of the ride. The wind kept it civil but we kept the hammer down to get in with a 15.1 mph average. We all made it over to Olive Garden to settle the tales and hear the lies of the days adventures as told by the cast of characters.
Day 2) The day started out OK but went south pretty early. Phil Schenck went down on the road in Waco on a section of Waco Drive that is pretty dangerous with some gaping cracks that have taken down other riders on different days. He was taken to the hospital and found to have 3 broken vertibrea. It definitely put a damper on the riding for a little while. Once we got back to riding, it appeared the wind was a little more of an obstacle than the day before. Our early path was to the northeast but would eventually turn to the northwest putting in direct headwind for the longer portion of the ride. We made it to Penelope with two engines and a rudder. Gary and I were trading pulls and the guy in the racing kit was sitting in and not taking a single pull. It kind of drove me nuts. Steve Gray and Bobby Emmett followed the sag van motorpace style. The van passed us and I was riding alone again. I pulled into Malone about three minutes after the motorpace crowd and filled up my bottle with cytomax and grabbed a cookie or two. I waited a couple minutes at the road before starting off again on the road to Malone. The direct headwind now around 20 gusting over 30 mph was beginning to set the tone for the rest of the day. I made it to Malone around 1:30 and Michele, David and Brad were there. Jim, Mark, RoRo and Jim Burrows had all ridden past me riding the tailwind.
I spent about 20 minutes there before heading on alone. Next was the section I call "eleven miles of hell", a portion of hills, chip seal, and usually a southerly headwind that just makes life difficult when coming from the north. The table was turned but the same rules applied coming from the south and the wind barreling in from the north. Downhill stretches of this road were about 18 mph and that was while peddling while uphill stretches were anything from .01 to 10 mph going uphill. David, Michele and Brad just slid right past me. I knew what I had been dealing with for the last 150 miles and I knew what I had left. I did my pace. It was nice once I made to Maypearl since they repaved 157 all the way to Venus. New pavement didn't make me any faster though. It was still a tough headwind and I was getting tired. David, Michele and Brad were stopped in Venus when I pulled up to the light but I didn't stop. It was nice once I got north of 67. It was less traveled roads and familiar roads making it feel like the ride was just about over. I began seeing other riders, who rode out to meet us, once I got closer to Rendon. A spot light kept me from catching them until I got to Forrest Hill. It was Vernon, Katrina and couple others as we stopped at Shelby Lane. I gave Vernon a break out front before he released me to take off to the finish.
It took right at 8 full hours of ride time to finish this course. 12.5 mph average speed.
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