2014 MS 150 Houston to Austin Bike Ride. Crossing finish line in Austin

I'll have more on the MS 150 ride, but for now a video of what it is like to cross the finish line in Austin and a few highlights of the ride.




The battery on my phone died so I couldn't track it on Strava but here are my stats: day 1 83 miles, left Rhodes Stadium in Katy TX at 7:10 AM and arrived at La Grange 2:25 Pm. Day 2, 66 miles, left La Grange at 8:15 and arrived at State Capitol in Austin at 2:20.


Favorite moment was a group of workers from one of my company's competitors riding 2x2 in middle of lane, slow and sloppy as their regular work, cars passing on left, and after I called out cars back and they didn't move, I passed on the right.  One of them yelled at me, in most stereotypical southern accent imaginable, that I needed to pass on left. Then I told him to get right and got "I damn will when you get out of the way!".


Favorite rider was easily young pretty girl in full makeup, with false eyelashes, at the second rest stop first day. I wish I saw her day two and after about 120 miles. Or maybe I did?


Most sobering moment was having to walk on the shoulder halfway down one of the steepest hills of day two because police had closed off all street traffic and were tending to a crashed rider. Looked liked they were keeping her immobilized until the ambulance arrived. Riding this far, fast, and in traffic can be dangerous.



Most annoying thing for my teammates was easily my snoring. The next tent over put on an ambient noise app on their phone to drown it out. I remember thinking, "hmm crickets at this hour? Interesting but kind of nice. Soothing".

Sun & Ski "Bike U"

Went to the Bike U at Sun & Ski on Westheimer last night.  Easily over a hundred people attended.  There was free booze and food along with clinics on bike maintenance, training for the MS 150 ride, riding safely etc.  Several sales reps from bike manufacturers and accessory makers were there to talk about their products.  And my main purpose for going- free bike fits!

When I showed up to the area they were doing the fits there were thirteen people on the wait list in front of me and a cute young girl was getting fitted.  I looked at her and thought, "great her fitting will take forever while Bike Shop Hero works on getting her number".  But as it turns out my wait wasn't too bad.  This was my first time in the shop so I roamed around and was impressed with the place.  My fitting was interesting.  The first thing the mechanic said when I mounted the bik was he would need to raise my seat but when he got his protractor out my knee angle was okay.  He then asked me if I had a fitting before.  Nope never but he ended up not changing anything other than the angle my seat.  I had told him my hands were getting sore easy and I was slipping around on my seat so we decided to raise the angle up a bit.  We'll see.

Good job to the folks at Sun & Ski.  They hosted a good size crowd but it never felt crowded and kept a good vibe the whole time I was there.  I hope the mechanic got the girl's number too.