So, I made a late decision to ride in the Tour De Cure in the DFW area this coming weekend 6/26). The Tour De Cure is put on by the American Diabetes Association to raise money for diabetes research / education. My plan is to do the 100 mile route as my last hard ride before the triple by pass. I've watched my mother in law suffer with this disease for many years, so I have some connection to this particular cause.
If anyone would like to earn some good cosmic karma I would welcome any donations. Here is my participant page link:
http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR/Tou...al&fr_id=11065

Thanks for reading.

Did the Tour de Cure ride. Had a pretty good time. My local bike shop is Richardson Bike Mart, I do a lot of rides with guys from there most Saturdays. Anyway, I joined their "team" for this fund raiser. There were maybe 8 or 10 of us that grouped up at the start. I only knew the guy that was the team captain. I had seen him before on a couple of the Saturday rides, and knew that even though he looks like a fireplug he can put out a ton of power and speed. I believe he was some sort of racer in his younger days.
Anyway, before the start he was saying because it was hot he was going to take it easy, 15 to16 MPH and was everyone ok with that. We rode the first 16 miles pretty much at that pace to our first stop. After the first stop it seemed to quicken, and I said something to the guy next to me as we were climbing a slight grade at 20 MPH. He laughed and said that was the leaders sense of humor, he wasn't serious about riding as slow as 15 MPH. Lol me. I hung on to the 30 mile mark until we hit a hill big enough I couldn't keep up.
I ended up riding 80. I called it early because my wife went to the ride to support me, it was our anniversary and I hated to keep her waiting while I finished. To her credit she was fine with waiting, it was me that called it. I don't have any doubt I could have finished if I wanted.
The last 35 miles are around the track at Texas Motor Speedway. That was nice because it is flat and smooth.

Nice ride, hope it upped your confidence before the bypass event.

Seems like most medium size groups of varying ability don't end up staying together in these kinds of events. A friend of mine who has done really well in amateur races dropped his whole bike club group of 8 riders during Vätternrundan, he says that he ended up pulling groups of riders who latched on pretty much solo for hours after that. Some people are just strong.

https://www.strava.com/activities/612841067

Thanks. I have pretty good confidence I have a shot at finishing within my reasonable goal time. I'm more confident about that then I would have predicted back in January.
It's funny, when I compare my power numbers to last year they are a little higher, but not as much as I would like. However, my totally unscientific feeling is that I never get as tired as I was last year doing a similar effort.
I still haven't gotten below 180 pounds. That is a bit of a disappointment, but the fault is all mine. I expect I'll be ~ 183 when the ride starts. Not too bad but I was thinking I could be around 175.
As far as strong riders, yes, we started with 8, but as we rode we developed a longer and longer tail of people drafting. Varied from about 15 to 30, I would say.

Last post before the TBP. I forgot to weigh this morning, felt like Monday, lol. I did weigh Sunday morning and was at 185. Good enough, I hope. I'll post a trip report when I get back.

So you are starting tomorrow? Enjoy the experience, just think of it as one of many upcoming epic rides. Good luck!

I don't see a TPB ride on strava.

Did you died?

Well, I see from strava that you didn't die, so, good job on that. Still expecting a TR though.

Just got back yesterday afternoon. I didn't bring my laptop on the trip, and I don't use the Strava app so I upload from the pc using Garmin express.
Did not die, but the issue was in doubt at times.
Full TR coming soon.
Cliffs:
Finished. Did not die. Took a really long time. Pretty awesome scenery.

Triple Bypass Trip report
Scheduling a family vacation in conjunction with a ride like this is probably not the best idea if you are looking for some kind of result. In my case, it was prudent. Happy wife, happy life, etc. I will skip the boring details but the important thing is I arrived at the ride probably 30 minutes later than I had hoped, with my bike in the trunk and both wheels off. I assembled the bike pretty quickly, turn on my GPS (Garmin 500) and work on applying sun screen, put the water bottles on the bike, apply the ride wrist band, etc. All the little details of making sure I have everything I need or want on the ride. Gels, chap stick, etc. Look down at my GPS and it is on the screen that says power meter detected, calibrate? I select yes, and it goes into calibration. And nothing appears to be happening. I wait a good 5 minutes while impatiently waiting to go for the calibration to finish, but finally give up and power down. Wait a few seconds and power up and get the famous working screen (see my ECC trip report). At this point, since I have experienced this in the past I decide to just leave it alone. I head to the start which is about 1/2 mile ride, mostly downhill. I get to the start with GPS still in "working" mode and start up Juniper pass.

Juniper pass is a nice steady climb. I have my Garmin vector on my wrist so I turn it to heart rate mode, so at least I can see my heart rate at the beginning of the climb. I get into a nice rhythm, trying not to work too hard, and after a couple of miles my GPS starts working. I take the vector out of heart rate mode and settle into the climb. I stopped once maybe a little more than halfway up to take a picture, but didn't "need" to stop. It takes me a good 2 hours and 15 minutes to climb the 16 mile pass. That is slower than I'd hoped, but at the actual ride I didn't pay that close of attention of how long it took, so I was not particulary bothered. I pass a few people, get passed a lot more, including by some people that sound like they are dying breathing hard. If those folks made it to the finish I would be shocked. I get to the summit. There wasn't any kind of a notice at the summit and it wasn't all that obvious that it was the summit until I already descend a bit, or I would have taken a picture at the top. The first rest stop is at the 18 mile mark, so I stop and refill my bottles. The first stop is very crowded so I don't spend much time here. I've used a GU gel and eaten a clif bar on the way up, as well as drinking some Gatorade.

The Juniper pass descent is a lot of fun. I think I strike a pretty good balance of letting the bike run but not taking crazy chances on a downhill I don't know. I pass a fair amount of people on the way down. A few pass me as well, as well as one guy who IMHO was taking crazy chances. The 10 mile descent takes me about 30 minutes.

After the descent you are in the little town of Idaho Springs, heading to the town of Georgetown about 11 miles away. It isn't really a climb, but it is all uphill, if that makes sense. One spot in particular that I remember looks to the eye to be nearly flat, but was around 10% for about 1/2 mile. Nothing else is that steep but there is a west wind which is a headwind and it is getting pretty warm and it is all just pretty hard, slow going. I get a little worried about halfway to Georgetown that if it is this hard now, how in the world will I get up Loveland pass? I hit the second break point at Georgetown a little discouraged, to be honest. I'm not feeling too energetic. I'm sure I stopped a few times on the way to Georgetown, just to catch my breath here and there.

From Georgetown to the next rest stop 4 miles below the summit of Loveland is only 12 miles, but it takes me over two hours elapsed. I haven't mentioned elevation, it goes from 8,500 feet to over 10,000 over that 12 miles. The grade is not terrible, but I'm honestly thinking thoughts like "If I SAG at 45 miles I will look like the biggest idiot in the world". My other thought was "if I can just get over Loveland pass at 60 miles, I'll get the 12 mile descent and sagging at 72 is at least somewhat respectable". It's hard to define why I was so negative. It just seems really hard but when I need a little power from my legs it seems like it is there. Anyway, I finally get to the Loveland Rest station, 4 miles and 1,500 feet of elevation below the summit. They have sub sandiwches, which I eat about half. I rest, drink, and use the rest room. I text my wife. I certainly didn't intend to stay and rest that long, but 50 minutes later I hit the road. Leaving the rest stop, I see the switch backs that are going to take us to the top, and really don't think it is doable. I get going, and the switchbacks are not as steep as they look. I stop a few times to catch my breath. It takes almost an hour, but I cover the 4 miles and summit Loveland pass, just under 12,000 feet. I stop and take a few pictures and enjoy the accomplishment.

The Loveland pass descent has more sharp turns than the Juniper pass descent. I have fun with it and cover the next 12 miles in 30 minutes. I'm actually feeling better and am starting to think I can finish this after all. I decide to keep plugging away and at least get over Swan mountain and get to the next rest stop and see how it goes. Swan mountain is 2.5 miles long. On this course they barely mention it. I get up the 2.5 miles in 25 minutes. I descend Swan mountain and hit the rest stop at 77 miles. I refuel, grab drinks, spend about 20 minutes and then hit the road.

The next 13 miles is mostly uphill, but all gradual stuff and not nearly as hard as what I've already gone over. At this point I'm determined to make it. I'm not fast, probably takes another 2 hours to get up this section. I ride a while, stop for a minute or two, take a drink, and then ride some more. Rinse and repeat. I hit the Vail pass rest stop(mile 93) thinking I have two more miles to climb before starting the downhill. I talk to one guy and he says I only have 200 feet more to climb before the last 25 miles which are primarily downhill. This is very good news.

I leave the rest stop, bomb the first 8 miles of the Vail pass descent before the grade starts to level out. There are a few rollers and a little flat, but it is mostly downhill and the last 17 miles it is pretty easy to ride 16 or 17 MPH while not working too hard. I take the final right turn and see my wife and daughter, as well as few hundred others at the finish. I finished it.

Final thoughts:
I don't know why I seem to have GPS issues on these big rides. It worked fine at Santa Fe. I was thinking the big change in altitude and or position may have something to do with it.
Colorado has lots of very nice bike paths. As a guess probably half the ride was on bike paths, the rest on the road.
I kept telling everyone the ride was only 60 miles. 60 up and coasting 60 down. I wasn't far off but the 60 up at that altitude was harder than I even expected. There was very little flat. It was windy, I would say the wind made it about 10% harder than it would have been on a calmer day.
I am happy to have done it, even if a turtle would have made it faster. It took over 11 hours of actual moving time, and another 2.5 of resting time.
I will try to get some pictures posted either tonight or tomorrow.

tldr; didn't die, finished, and even had fun once I got over Loveland pass.

It is often a good idea when you go someplace far away to let your GPS acclimate for 15 minutes or so. Or at least, this is something I've heard, could be urban cycling folklore. Also I have found the Edge 500 to be very tempermental. I lent mine to someone doing the TBP, I hope it worked well for him but who knows.

Anyway, glad you made it, definitely glad you powered through it. I think if I was in your spot I'd have to be like, having a heart attack or injured to SAG it, just too much on the line, so much preparation, etc.

I ran into a guy yesterday who leads bike tours. He has a pretty sweet one out in west texas in the fall. It's kind of expensive ($1600) but all expenses paid and everything taken care of. Might be fun. It's also kinda less miles than I'd want maybe.
http://veloviewbiketours.com/tours/t...end-fort-davis

I kind of remember you bringing up some ride out there also, but I can't remember now. Do you know?

The one I found was:
https://www.facebook.com/Fort-Davis-...6224455136683/

$1650 is a little pricey for my taste, but it would be nice to have everything taken care of.

I guess maybe I was more afraid of having to SAG since there was so much prep and people that knew what I was doing, both in real life and here. That may have been driving my thoughts. I always intended to give it my all, even when I was thinking negative thoughts.

great job & congratz on finishing!

yes, gps receiver need a lot more time to find the starting point if you move a lot from their last "known position". (it's a lot better with more modern devices, because they precache the satellite positions for the upcoming 7 days)

Headed up Juniper pass, early morning.


View from about halfway up Juniper pass


First rest stop, pretty crowded. I think they said there were about 3500 riders on Saturday.


almost to the top of Loveland Pass. We came up the road you see in the lower background


Top of Loveland pass.

Last 2 pics not showing.

Cyclefest was what I was thinking of, yeah. Maybe I'll do that this year.

Was it cold/cool at your elevation? I've heard it can be surprisingly chilly, esp if you're from TX.

Thanks. Everyone keeps asking me what my next challenge is, lol. I think I may just enjoy this one for a while.

Fixed the pics. The only spot that I was a little cold was on the Juniper pass descent. It was still in shade and at times you could feel the temp drop by 10 or 15 degrees. Other than that, it was probably hotter than normal and we didn't have any pop up thunderstorms, which I've heard can be an issue in the afternoon in the summer. I was comfortable in just my jersey and shorts. I did put on sun sleeves mid morning, just for protection from the sun, not to stay warm.

Congrats, great achievement! Looks like you got lucky with the weather.

Thanks Marn. Now I need to do an 186 mile ride
Yes, the weather was good to great. I had some rain gear in the car but based on the forecast I didn't take it. Was happy not to carry it all through the ride. If I could have picked my weather it would have been 5 degrees cooler in the afternoon and the wind would have been from the east, not the west, but things could have been much worse.

Trying to decide if I should keep this log going post TBP. I think I will try to keep posting at least semi regularly. Bike riding motivation has been low since returning from Colorado. I seem to need a carrot up ahead for motivation, especially now that summer is here in full force.
Sometime ago I mentioned in this log doing the 12 hour Texas Time trial in late September, with a goal of doing 132 miles. I'm not really feeling that right now, but not totally ruling it out, either. For now, I think I will try to do a personal best on a local ride, the 75 mile Blazin'(their spelling) Saddles ride in Granbury, Texas, on August 6th. Last year I did it in 5:27 moving time, 5:54 elapsed. That was a huge improvement over the previous year, which was 5:50 and 6:40, respectively. I guess a reasonable goal would be to shave 15 minutes off the moving time, so I would take anything under 5:10 moving.

Random thoughts.
My Saturday ride tends to be with the Richardson Bike Mart (RBM) group. They have several rides, but the 3 that I've ridden are the 20 mile Donut run (13-15 MPH computer average). No donuts are harmed on this ride, I think the name is a leftover from when they actually turned around at a donut shop. Now it's a bank. The second is the fast 20, same route but 16-18 avg. The third is the Tour De Plano, 29 miles @ 16-17.
The other rides are farther and faster and I get dropped enough from the rides I listed that I haven't tried any of them.
With my increased fitness this year I've been mainly ridding the 29 mile ride. I usually add 6 miles on the front of the ride and 6 miles back, to get a 42 mile ride with the middle portion at a faster pace then I would choose for myself. It's interesting, in that at the beginning of the ride I'm as strong or stronger than a lot of the guys on this ride. There are some hills that tend to separate the weak from the strong, and I'm leaving some of them behind on these hills. The problem is that on the last stretch there is a spot where I tend to run out of matches, and the people that I was stronger than earlier on the ride seem to have a few more to burn.
I suppose you could make a case that they paced themselves better on the spots where I perceived myself as stronger, but I'm not sure that is the case. Also, I've tried to exert myself less in some of those spots, and then you end up chasing back on for a ways, and I think in a lot of cases you end up exerting yourself more than you would have if you just stayed with the group.
Anyway, I have fun on these rides, but there is a competitive aspect that I think some people don't like. I've heard the other big bike group in the area, the PBA, dismisses the RBM rides as the Saturday races, lol. The donut run is no drop ride but rider beware on all the others.

My 2 cents is that if you want to be strong at the end of a 30 mile ride, then you need to have some reasonably high effort 40-50 mile rides in your rotation. The majority of my rides are 20-25 miles long (work commutes) and I have found that this had made me have, relative to most people, the ability to do high effort for around 20-25 miles, after which other people sort of "catch up" to me. When I was doing lots of long rides, though, I would still be feeling great at 50 or 60 miles, not wanting to stop, etc.

That is probably a good point. I have done a fair amount of long rides this year at EM pace, zone 2, whatever you want to call it. The 29'er part of the ride I'm talking about above tends to be harder than that, for me. I'm in tempo or above for the majority of the ride, plus there are some hard anaerobic efforts mixed in. I think it is the anaerobic efforts that soften me up.

So I totally missed this log. Managed to match up who you are on strava to here now finally! TDP looks awesome. I'd like to get involved in a big ride like that at some point but just not bike fit enough atm. Keep the log going imo, always good to see fellow cardiotards in this forum.