HHH Ride

Wow, where to start. JohnnyE and I left Cardston at 3am to make our 7am flight in Calgary. As usual, JohnnyE got all the breaks. As we checked in I had to pay almost $100 to get my bike on - JohnnyE paid nothing. I got to sit in THE BACK of the plane - JohnnyE got upgraded to a bulkhead seat... you get the idea.

Once we got to Wichita Falls and got our rental car we were off to find our hotel... sort of. I can't believe how turned-around John and I got - and that seemed to stay with John for the rest of the weekend. If John thought it was a right turn, it was really left. We finally found our way over to the hotel and unpacked. There I found that my good friends at American Airlines who had charged me $100 to fly my bike had decided that unclicking the buckles on my bag to take a look inside was too much like work and that a knife was much faster. Brand new bike bag - guess I'll be shopping for a way to repair that!

John and I got settled in and had an early night.

Friday was spent wandering around the MPEC - we stopped by the campsite a couple of times, but didn't see anybody that we knew there. SABEARD stopped me in the MPEC and we chatted for awhile. We decided to meet for supper at the Remington. We did eventualy get there - but SABEARD was long gone. Sorry about that!

My purchase of the weekend turned out to be a new set of bib shorts - bought some Sugino bibs, and all I can say is WoW! They are the most comfortable thing I've ever put on.

Finally, Saturday arrives and John and I are up and ready to go. Peter (HiGuy) met us at our hotel and we zipped down to the MPEC and parked by where we'd camped last year. AS we were getting geared up who comes up behind us but Kincannondale! We had a great reunion and worked our way together over to the start. While waiting, along came Talimena Tammy! She'd gotten in the night before. Her, myself, and John headed up another block closer to the start.

The ride itself was the usual hassle at the beginning. I really think that they should encourage people who are expecting slower times to start further back and let faster people move closer to the front. This could be done with different streets functioning as starting lines for expected finishing times. It would sure make it a lot safer. Fortunately we never had any problems.

The only problem I found was that John was feeling a whole lot stronger than I was - my legs just didn't seem to have the jump in them that I expected. One of the things that really had me laughing was the number of times I had to put the brakes on while going UPHILL! (And we're not talking about real hills here, just little bumps.)

We zipped through to rest stop #3. There I ran into Texas Bike Lady while waiting for the bathroom - a 30 minute wait! Unfortunately this was a theme repeated at future stops - the stops did not seem to be as well organized this year as last.

We ran into stops that had NO ICE, others that had run out of water - and ALL of them had half hour plus lines for the bathroom.

Tammy and I had let John go on ahead and were just keeping a comfortable pace - nothing too hard, but we were still averaging over 32km/hr of riding time. At the 50 mile stop Tammy had to make a bathroom break - it turned into a 45 minute wait in line.

We were staying well within ourselves, and well hydrated. Yes, the temperatures were climbing, but we were in good shape, and on track to get to Hell's Gate an hour and a half before it was supposed to close.

We got to RS #6, filled our bottles quickly and were pulling out when a gentleman informed us that Hell's Gate had just closed. 90 minutes early. We went by a couple of minutes later and I was MAD! I travelled 2700km to ride 100 miles and I was getting robbed of it. This was going to be my last chance to get in a century in August - so after 31 straight months of a century a month, I wasn't gonna make it. I thought about just doing an extra 20 miles or so after the end of the ride, but I knew once I crossed the finish line and went through the finishing line there would be no motivation to keep going.

I pulled alot into the headwind back to Wichita Falls. We did have one nice stop in that the cut-off route took us through the base and around some jets. We stopped for a few pics, and then continued on our way. I pusposely didn't push the pace hard at this point 'cause it just didn't matter and I didn't want to burn any more matches that I'd need for the Crit race the next day.

Finally we crossed the line, and they announced my name at the line. We finished with a 31km/hr average - even fighting the headwinds. However, it was only 120km instead of 162. I was disappointed and mad.

After everybody else had gotten in we agreed to meet for dinner at 5pm - and went to the Bar L Joint for some Texas BBQ - food was really good, the after-dinner entertainement was even better! I've never laughed so hard. We were welcomed by the Wichita Falls ambassodor (or so he called himself.) Good times were had by all, and before we knew it, it was time to say farewell.

I understand the officials closed the gate early - I'm mad 'cause had the stops been better organized this year with more bathrooms there wouldn't have been the long waits and we'd have easily made the early closure of Hells Gate. Had they told people down the road that an early closure was possible we could have made a decision to "hold things in" until after we were passed Hell's Gate - or we could have found a tree someplace. I don't know that I'll be going back to HHH. I know of one friend who has already said he's not going back. It's disappointing to be blocked from finishing a ride when it wasn't a case of not being able to physically do it. It wasn't a missed strategy. To the best of our knowledge we were riding the way we should, being careful, etc. Had they let us through Hell's Gate we'd have been done by about 2pm - that's still 2 and a half hours earlier than some were finishing up the 100km ride. I'm still very disappointed about it. Maybe I'll change my mind by next year, but as it stands now, I probably won't be going back.