Yesterday, in Cleburne, Texas, I did my 14th bike rally of the year and my 460th overall. I did my first Goatneck (as it's called) in 1990, which made this my 20th year. I missed three editions in the early 1990s when I was either vacationing or doing weeklong bike tours Out West, so I've done 17 of the past 20 Goatnecks. The course has always been the same: 69.5 miles of rolling hills and rough roads. It's not the rally with the most climbing, but it's not the rally with the least climbing, either. The rally is always in late July, so it's always hot and humid.
Two of my home boys showed up: Joe (with son Jason aboard the tandem) and Randy. Phil is in British Columbia and Julius is in the Czech Republic. My only goal was to stay with them and have fun. I hoped that nobody would talk about the Tour de France, because I wanted to watch a replay of the stage when I got home. If someone at a rest stop disclosed the result, it would ruin it for me. The atmosphere at the start was festive. Someone sang the National Anthem; there was a short prayer for the religious; and the rally organizer thanked everyone for coming. Joe agreed with me that there were more people at the rally than ever. Joe has been doing rallies longer than I have, although he's a couple of years younger.
I rode 19.9 miles the first hour. I wasn't trying to go fast, but the course was downhill in places and I was fresh. We rode side by side for much of the time, talking. Our first stop was in Eulogy. What a great name for a town! About halfway in, we rode through Glen Rose, which is one of my favorite places in Texas. The police support was excellent all day. What this means is that police officers control intersections. As we approach a traffic light or stop sign, a police officer in the roadway stops vehicles and motions for us to proceed. I always wave to the motorists to express my appreciation and thank the officer.
There were lots of hills after Glen Rose, so I rode only 16.8 miles the second hour. That reduced my average speed to 18.35 miles per hour. At Nemo, we stopped at a rest stop for about 15 minutes. Dozens of people were milling about. I ate some spicy peanuts that I had carried in my jersey and filled my bottles with water. It was getting hot. We were about 40 miles into the ride, with many steep hills to come. I enjoyed descending the hills. I recently learned a new tuck position. I put my read end on the top bar (below the seat) and my chest on the handlebars, which reduces the wind resistance. It's the position used by professional cyclists. Unfortunately, my chest turned my cycling computer off on one of the descents. By the time I noticed the word "Paused," I had lost some data. As it turns out, the computer was off for only eight-tenths of a mile. I'll have to remember this so as not to lose data in the future.
I rode 17.8 miles the third hour, which gave me an average speed of 18.16 miles per hour. The temperature must have been in the 90s by then. After the final rest stop, I left Joe and Jason behind (Randy was already well behind us) and hammered to the finish. I averaged 19.40 miles per hour for the final 43:55. I felt great. In fact, I wondered how I could be going so fast with the effort I was putting out. It was as though I had an electric motor on my bike. I guess the rallies I've done this year, plus all the running I do during the week, have made me strong. We did have a tailwind going in, but the course was slightly uphill and it was hot. I could easily have ridden 100 miles yesterday, as I did in Waxahachie a month ago in similar weather conditions.
I ended up with an average speed of 18.40 miles per hour (elapsed time = 3:43:55), which is lower than the 18.93 of a year ago. Two years ago, I averaged 19.75 miles per hour, which is my best ever on this course. Had I ridden in packs yesterday and tried to go fast the entire way, I could have averaged 21 or more miles per hour, easily. My maximum heart rate for the day was 158. My average was 124. I've had an average heart rate as high as 132 in rallies, so you can see that I didn't put forth maximum effort. I reached a top speed of 40.8 miles per hour on one of the descents, and I burned 2,218 calories. The official high temperature for the day, at DFW Airport, was 102º Fahrenheit. The average wind speed was 10.0 miles per hour, with gusts up to 18.
It was good to see Jason again after several months. His voice is changing and he's grown an inch or two. His father, alas, is still old and slow. Randy is the same sack of potatoes he has always been. But seriously, it was great to ride with them. I had fun. There is nothing better than riding with friends through the Texas countryside in beautiful weather.
Addendum: At the final rest stop, at about 11:00, Jason overheard someone talking about the Tour de France. When we got rolling, he said, ever so innocently, "Lance didn't win." I was aghast. "How do you know?" He said he heard someone say it. I explained that Jason shouldn't disclose the outcomes of events to people unless they ask for it. This, by the way, is another reason to hate cellphones. The main reason, of course, is that they leash people.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 