I road with a freind of mine from my bike club and we did the 12 hour team time trial. Our race started at midnight on Saturday and went until noon Sunday. The course was a mild hilly road in the canyon that was a down and back loop of 8.75 miles. So it was almost like an olympic time trial route. Each of us did 3 laps or about 26 miles before turning it over to our teammate. So we had about an 1 and 30 min of rest before we had to go again. I completed 11 laps and my teammate did 10. We set the course record breaking the prior record of 18 set two years ago. Had a blast but was very tired since we had to drive back to Dallas when it was over which is a 6 hour drive. (Can't go anywhere in 6 hours and be outside of Texas
).The other thing they offered was a "Hill Challenge" that took place on friday night at 10:00 pm just after the state park closed, You started at the bottom of the canyon and road the switch back road to the top. It is a 1.2 mile ride that goes up 510 ft. from the bottom to the top. The average grade was 7.2% but topped out at 12% and had a number of 10% sections. I had to stop 3 times to catch my breath but was determined to make it to the top. I did but came in dead last. My road bike has a standard 53-39 gearing with a 12-27 cassette. I kept trying to down shifit but didn't have any more gears. I needed a compact double for that hill.
When I got to the top I thought I had just been transported to a smokers convention as everyone was coughing their lungs out, including me. In fact I was wheezing most of the night on Friday and was more than a little concerned that I would not be able to race on Saturday. However, we went and bought some musinex on Saturday morning and I drank a bunch of water all day and it finally started to clear up so I was good to go Saturday night.
This event also included Mountain Biking races and that course was real tough as it was up and down the canyon walls.
A great event in a great sceinic location.
Ron
