Hotter N Hell 100

PLEASE be very careful with your bike at the end of the ride.  I laid mine down in the grass like I've done numerous times before.  Was gone for about 10 minutes getting post ride drinks.  Came back and it was gone.  It was a black and white Look 386.

I told the police and their response was something like this: "Oh yeah, we get at least 20 stolen each year.  You can file a police report if you want to." 
When I called the detective a couple days later his attitude was basically one of why am I bothering him with such a petty issue.  Well, I could think of about 7,000 reasons why I was bothering him.

My home owner's insurance ended up coverign the replacement cost minus a $1,000 deductable.
When I asked the agent if a bike was covered, she said,"Now honey, your deductable is $1,000."
I could here her jaw hit the floor when I told her how much my bike cost.

Oh, and it got to 114 on the road.  I have never before been to any ride where hundreds of people were sitting in random spots on the side of the road looking like a MASH unit.

Thank you for the words of advise.

That sucks Bumble... Bike thieves are even lower on the scum scale than regular thieves... They must have some knowledge of the sport to know how to pick the expensive ones and they prey on them.  There is a special place in hell for these people.

I will be there will probably be looking for someone to ride with because the people I am going with have not been riding like they should.  The wind will pick up in as the day goes on so it is nice to have a few people to work with. 

For anyone medical. Last year I went to a symposium the day before the ride that offered continuing ed hours.  This provides a decent excuse to get there a day early.

Lanceho,

I will be up there with my neighbor and a few other riders. My neighbor and I are going to pace ourselves to make sure we reach the gate prior to the 12:30 cutoff just in case they decide to close the gate early. You are welcome to meet up with us.

J

I am riding and so is my cycling team, The Texas Toughriders. You are more than welcome to ride with us! This is my first year, so can't offer any advice.

www.texastoughriders.com

Kris

I did this one in 2006 and 2007, didn't make it back in 2008 (and doesn't look like it fits into the plans this year). My advice is a little different, in that I think you want to cover some miles early when it is cooler. Not necessarily riding super hard, but a nice steady pace with as few stops as possible (in 2007 I didn't stop until the 50 mile rest stop and it was a much more enjoyable ride all around). When the heat kicks in, there is no hiding from the sun and it can drain you very quickly.

By the way, they can (and do) close Hell's Gate earlier than 12:30 if it's too hot. I think it was the first year I did it (2006), that they closed it much earlier due to a high of something like 105 that day. Many surprised riders got turned back and sent on the shorter route that day.

Edited by PLMsbr 2009-07-09 2:30 PM

I did the 100K Cat 5 road race last year. It was FUN, FUN, FUN! If you have a road bike I highly recommend it. The power of the draft is awesome. You use so much less energy. I don't have a computer on my bike so I asked a friend how many miles we had covered. I guessed 40 and he said we were at mile 57.

However there were a couple of pretty nasty crashes, one of which was a yard sale about 2 miles from the finish line. I got stuck behind this crash and by the time I bridged back up to the main group I had nothing left for the sprint finish. I'll stay near the front this year.

PLMsbr,

Great point. I read in an article that the gate can close as early as 11am. We were planning on riding harder when it was cooler, plan on reaching the gate prior to 11am and then enjoy the rest of the day and not have to worry about the clock. I'm really looking forward to stopping at the Air Force Base.

J

Please keep in mind Houston, the 100 miler DOES NOT go through the AF base.  I  learned this the hard way my first outing.  Unfortunate because I can only imagine(and be told of by the 100K and unders) how inspiring it it to ride through that crowd of heroes. 

The 100 mile route doesn't go through the base? That's disappointing. At least I know ahead of time.

I will try to contact you closer to the time of the ride.  I will be looking for a group to sit in with.  I am leaving the country at the end of this week and won't be back until the first of Aug.  so I am worried about losing a little training but I will probably try to rent a bike while in Ireland and ride a little.

2006 is the only year I did it... and Hell's Gate was closed early. We rode 75 miles that day.

I find the actual asking of this question pretty d@mn funny considering the name of the event. Ha.

I'm from up North (think Yankee) so Hotter n Hell is a relative term. Everything down here is hotter n hell to me. I'm just wondering how much hotter can it get?????

Now you've done it, you've gone and challenged the weather gods

Haha I"m with you on this one - my first summer here after 37 years in Seattle. I'd love to say I'm going to finish the 100 miler, but...this heat might be the death of me.

Rnner66,
I'm sure you'll be fine. Just make sure you stay in the middle of the pace line...... . By the way I just did a 100 mile (Katy Flatland) this past weekend and it was mid 90's and it actually felt nice with a slight overcast. I know what I'll be praying for.......

Ah yes, yesterday the weather was perfect! I did the Disco Tri near Denton, and was so happy to see the weather forecast the night before!

Yeah we did the Katy Flatlands 100 yesterday, it was good.  I was expecting a lot hotter temps than we got, I kept telling my wife as we rode how lucky we got.  Even with the mild temps, there were still some people choosing not to do the 100.  After it was done, not too bad.  Oh yeah, the hardest leg was right after rest stop 7 on the way to rest stop 8, man that straight shot of 12 miles felt like forever.

Weather forecast for HH100 according to weather.com   Hi 96 Low 70 winds from the SE at 11 and a 20% chance of rain  sounds like a good day to ride.

We will see how much it changes the closer we get

My Houston boys have bailed. Is there a group of BT'ers that will be hooking up to ride together? I'm in for the century ride - would love to meet up with some of my web compadres. Going up Friday in the later afternoon and planning on just sleeping in my one-man ultra-light tent.

Edited by sulross 2009-08-25 9:13 PM