At 6am on Saturday morning, mischief was in the air north of Houston in Anderson, Texas. At dawn’s first peeking light, a small but independent minded, energetic and determined group of Rowdybikers had assembled in the town square. Because the temperature was 36 degrees with a biting 15mph north wind, traditional CCRider gear was discarded in favor of warmth. 8 cyclist snow bears and 3 invitingly warm SAG wagons departed in rather hilly country about 7:20am, heading south and following a zigzag path that virtually assured them not a tailwind ride at all, but a punishing quarter wind to crosswind during the first 30 miles. Leading this merry band of fool-hearted cyclists was Batman, Slick, Flaming Goat, little m, Mr. Poppins, Tonto, I-Man, and Brian. Madly searching for the riders in all directions in the SAG wagons were Brent (Slick’s son), Mrs. Poppins, and Steady Eddie.

Nature called many of the riders in the first 10 miles, so we made our first unscheduled break a mere 30 minutes into the ride. Our objective was 150 miles, theoretically achievable in daylight hours with direct tailwinds. The many and fickle hands of fate would later conspire to thwart this objective.

Who would imagine that a group of 8 experienced CCRiders could leave Hempstead, a route that we do all the time -- destination Brookshire and manage to get split up, take 3 different routes, have one flat tire, lose one SAG wagon (out searching for cyclists)!!!!

The SAG team of STEADY EDDIE and MRS. POPPINS had their hands full trying to herd us back on this most interesting day of riding. That was just the first time we managed to split up and take different routes – there would be a second time, one in which half of us were headed to Rosenberg via Simonton, while the other half headed to Wallis via Simonton.

Flat tires? Ish had 2, but one was counted against Steady Eddie when Ish traded his bike for a comfortable SAG drivers spot in Brookshire. Steady Eddie had the flat 100 yards later. Hummmm Ish? In fact, we had a third flat – but the third one was on the SAG wagon so it really doesn’t count, does it?

We also stopped part of our group for what else – A cattle drive down the road? Well yes, that happened twice. Once while changing a tire the police came up, blocked the highway and cowboys on horseback and barking dogs, and mooing cows all trampled over a hill and onto the highway for a while. The other time was when Mrs. Poppins was out west of Monaville searching for lost cyclists who took FM1877 instead of FM359 (a common mistake since the route numbers are almost identical).

Despite boisterous discussion about the direction of the wind, and several cyclists claiming that the fabled tailwind must have been 30 feet in the air, because it wasn’t directly on their tails – we did have some good sustained runs at 24-26mph, and I personally reached 30mph at one point while fleeing for my life from a large, tooth laden, hell-hound who was almost as determined to eat me as I was to prevent him from succeeding. In addition, we made approximately $456 in cell phone calls trying to find each other and give our SAG drivers reports of our whereabouts.

Several personal records were achieved this weekend:

Tonto was a man possessed with enough determination to pull us all if needed, and set his own record of 132 miles. Slick was with him the whole way (although Slick needs 205 miles to break his PR, and we would have run out of land in Freeport, not to mention daylight before that happened. Little m, Flaming Goat both recorded 130 miles. Brian, Batman and Mr. Poppins did centuries, and Steady Eddie and I-man switched off running SAG and cycling – so we haven’t a clue about who got exactly what but we think I-man did about 75 and Steady Eddie added another 50 to I-man’s bike, before the last flat tire.

Our apologies go out to all the biking widows who nodded their approval for this crazy but fun Saturday. About the only thing you can count on, is that we are bound to attempt it again. The next one will be before the MS, and will include 2 or 3 different speed groups.

-Mr. Poppins