Tour de Goat Neck
Yesterday we rode the Goat Neck. This was our first organized bicycle ride to attend, and actually our first group ride on the bicycles. I rode my 2010 Scott Contessa Pro and Monte rode the 2002 Kestrel EMS 500. I opted to ride the 69 mile while Monte opted for the 40 mile route. The ride starts out of Cleburne, TX and on the 69 mile route it goes through Glen Rose, then back to Cleburne.
I was curious to know why the ride was named 'Goat Neck' and a quick Google search yields this little tidbit of information:
Clem Pierce (C.A. Pierce), one of the early settlers of the area, was asked to describe the piece of land for one of the legal documents necessary to the transfer. According to legend, he said, "It's just a little ole goats neck out in the cedar bakes along the river." The name stuck, and goat's neck eventually became Goat Neck. - Steve Bell Johnson County History Book
A bit of information about the ride:
The Goatneck Bike ride is a rolling hill course which averages around 35 feet per mile of climbing. The roads are well maintained country roads with little traffic. The prevailing winds during this time of year are from the southwest, which provides a tail wind for the last portion of the ride coming into the finish! We provide rest stops every 8-9 miles on all courses.
Last year we had close to 2,500 riders. We provide showers at the finish in the Cleburne High School basketball locker rooms, located in the gym registration area.
All money raised goes to various Johnson County charities. Last year we were able to donate over $30,000 to local charities because of the participation of the riders.
Below is a map of the 69 mile ride:
With an elevation scale:
And a map of the 40 mile ride:
All in all, I had a blast. I think I can safely say that Monte did as well. My only goal for this first ride out was simply to finish. The conditions were HOT! I ended up catching back up to a friend of mine who is running the Garmin Edge 500 bicycle computer. This bicycle computer apparently records real time temperature, among a plethora of other things. On the road, it was reading a temperature of 105 degrees. At the second to last rest stop, we pulled off of the road, leaned our bikes against the fence, and took a much needed re-hydration break. Once we came back to the bikes, it read 117 degrees. Yes, that's 117 degrees, off of the road, not moving, just sitting in the sun. I've spent my fair time in the sun. Having grown up in Houston and lived my entire life in Texas, I can say that I would believe it 100%. It was hot. The only thing saving us was the fact that the humidity was relatively low.
I completed the event in roughly 6 hours. That's taking into account about an hour and a half of rest stop use. You can find my ride data here: Sport Track Live I will give one note when reviewing this data: my phone locked up once, then at about the last 10-15 miles or so the battery died on me. I had the GPS accuracy set for excellent, which isn't necessary (I didn't change it from my relatively short rides previously). That chews up the battery pretty darn quick and apparently is a known bug when used this way for a longer period of time. I was also using the phone for my music player via a Bluetooth head set as well syncing it to my Bluetooth heart rate monitor. All of these things going on at once caused the battery to go dead in a matter of no time. It really boiled down to the fact that I didn't expect the event to take 6 hours to complete. What did me in was the heat. The heat was unreal.
While on course, I would get in a pack of other riders and naturally, we would all start chatting about various things. Come to find out, this event is considered by most to be harder than even the Hotter'N Hell 100. When I found this out, I was quite amused to say the least. How on earth did I get suckered into this as my first organized ride ever?! I had completed 40 miles before, no sweat. I had even ridden in 106 degree heat before, though only for about 25 miles. But this!? HA! I thought to myself while on course: 'Well, if you wanted to know what you were made of, now is the time to find out.'
The Hotter'N Hell is considered by many to be one of the top rides in the country. They had 14,000 people show up last year and have people from the world over fly in with their bikes just to participate. If I could complete this ride, then I would consider myself in pretty good shape and could hold my head pretty high knowing that I completed something like this effectively blind.
We saw all kinds of bikes and all walks of life out there. Everything from fold up bikes (no, I'm not kidding), to recumbent bikes, to mountain bikes with guys in jean shorts and deck shoes. Heck, Monte could have sworn he saw one of the guys from ZZ Top out there riding. We saw some guys complete the 69 mile course in about 2 hours and 40 miles, hop off their bikes and throw on tennis shoes and head out for a run on the 20 mile course. We saw folks out there who were clearly working to lose the weight and make a life change. It's things like this that made me proud to be a part of such an event. It didn't matter what you were on, it didn't matter what gear you had. It didn't matter if you finished first or dead last or if you had to have the sag wagon come and pick you up half way through. The important thing was that you were out there giving it your all.
At the very last rest stop, I was struggling a little bit to get going. Another rider, who rides with the Lifetime fitness team was in the same boat that I was and we decided to give each other a tow to the finish. This was amazing to me. We didn't know each other in the least, but it didn't matter. At that moment in time, we were a team. We were there to support one another and make sure that we both finished the event. We chatted along the way (7.5 miles left) about how we got into cycling and why we were doing this. There was no pretense as to who we each were or what background we came from, it didn't matter. All that mattered is that we were there to pull each other through to the finish.
The next thing I knew, I couldn't shift out of the gear I was in. I tried everything, but I was stuck. I rode in the last 4 miles in my small ring up front and the small ring out back. I hadn't been crossed up like that all day, yet at the end, I was so focused on making it in that I just didn't pay attention. Turns out that the reason for the issues were related to the bike still being in the break in stages. The cable had stretched enough that I couldn't shift any more. Needless to say it made the last 4 miles interesting.
We split ways at the finish, I made my way back to our vehicles to my clapping husband and a huge smile on his face. I had finished. I was exhausted. I had finished and that's all that mattered.
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