Outlaw Trial 100

I decided to ride in the Outlaw Trail 100, it's only been a week since the Challenge, but I felt good enough to ride. I signed up the day before, they have late registration at the same place where packet pickup occurs. After getting my goodie bag, I picked a few freebies (some older water bottles and coozies) they had available. It was not time for the pasta dinner, so I went up to the start/finish line.

The route is marked with 'six shooter' icons to indicate the direction. There are usually two sets of markers before a turn and one after. The ride starts/ends at Old Settler's Park in Round Rock, Tx.

After the dinner, I headed home to get my bike and everything else ready for ride.

The day of the ride was mild, about 70 when the ride began. It would later get up to about 90. When leaving to drive to the park, I could see the wind had already picked up, I suspected that would mean a long day for me and everyone else. Unfortunately, I was correct. The wind was rather relentless, blowing all day from the SE/S/SW, and rather strong at times.

The ride began at 8am, with the usual jumble of folks at the start line. Just after the start, I thought I saw one of my buddies from work zoom past me on the left. I was able to confirm this later.

The first part of the ride is generally north, so the effects of the wind were less obvious. Much of the ride is through farmland, and mostly flat. Too me, it seemed all the uphills were into the wind ;-). I did not spend too much time in any pacelines, I was in a few during the first part of the ride, but they did not last any length of time.

Once the ride turned south (past Barlett), the majority of the ride was back into the wind, sometimes straight into it, and often a healthy crosswind. The country roads used for the ride tend to go straight for many miles, thus, if you are heading into the wind, you know you will be fighting it for a while. This can be a bit discouraging.

I skipped the first two rest stops, and stopped at the rest of them.

When finishing, I noticed the time and distance were less than what I expected (from the numbers I recorded last year). I don't believe the bike computer is incorrect, and I believe the route was the same. The end part of the ride may have been different, but I cannot be sure, that could account for the difference. After talking to my friend at work, we believe the computer probably stopped recording for around one hour. The computer is only six months old, thus, I doubt the battery is failing.

At the end, they had some pizza available, I rested a while and had a few slices. I was not the last to finish ;-)

It was quite a challenge compared to last year, the wind made a huge difference.