Scott P

I guess I'll ride 20 something miles this afternoon and make it a Metric MS 150.

the sci guy 

Man, two years in a row. What suck. I blame global warming.

AgeOfEmpires

Hope everyone riding gets the full ride in.

Last MS150 I did was way back in 2001 or 2002. Like anyone who's ridden a number of years (6 for me), I've ridden in all sorts of weather. The most "exciting" was my first - 1992 I believe. Weather was so bad, we watched a huge weather spout over Fayette County lake. Torrential rain but essentially no lightening in the near vicinity. They kept us riding on. Guess they are more cautious these days.

Scott P

I imagine it is the potential lightning that is the major concern.

the sci guy 

Would love to see pics and hear any fun stories or about the ride in general and finishing in La Grange today

10 Wheels

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...as+MS+150+pics

Scott P

The ride was perfect. The riding partner and I left the Waller start point around 8:00. The tailwind was helpful as we averaged 18.8 mph for most of the ride. We probably could have pushed harder, but there was no reason. The weather was nice, the rest stops plentiful and well stocked and the people were friendly. No issues whatsoever with traffic or authorities. The lunch stop did have a new Clif energy packet called "Pizza Marghertita. Basically it was tomato paste in a packet. Ugh... I tried it out if stupid curiosity and to amuse the strangers at my table.

La Grange was nice. It was my first La Grange experience as last year was my first MS150. We didn't have a team tent and due to layoffs earlier in the week, the "team" pretty much fractured into two different factions. My wife met me there with my truck and after I changed in my Academy tent, we did a slow tour of the grounds before we decided to leave around 3:00.

I've turned into an old fogey in my fitness journey. Sitting around drinking beer after the ride for several hours didn't appeal to me. After getting into my tent to change, I don't think I would have enjoyed sleeping in that thing during the potential storms. Then again, I may have just enjoyed it. I liked being about to shuttle myself and my bike back to the high school so I didn't have to ride that 2.5 miles in crazy traffic to load into my truck. Since we left early, I don't know how the weather was later and overnight.

I did see several MS150 riders heading the opposite direction towards the end of the ride. I don't know if they were superstars determined to ride back to their respective starting points in a headwind or if they were doing an extra smaller loop for additional miles.

EthanHawley

It was a wonderful ride. I started just north of Tully and rolled in with 98.3 miles on my Garmin. I debated riding another 1.7 miles to bag my first century but am less OCD these days and didn't want to brave an extra loop with the traffic around the finish in La Grange. The tailwind made a huge difference, and I ended up averaging 2 mph faster than my usual pace on training rides even with the substantially greater distance. The last 5 miles as we turned into the wind on the final approach to La Grange were a reminder of how tough the ride would have been under normal circumstances. I have to admit that I was nervous before the ride because the longest ride I had done before was in the 65 mile range (last year's MS 150) and it was hard to imagine tacking on an extra 30-35 miles, particularly when my training this year was less than ideal. But I took it easy, had a huge tailwind pushing me along, and riding with a big group of people the entire way made it less of a grind.

The rest stops were a lot of fun - lots of loud music, energy, and snacks. The volunteers were terrific - very friendly and encouraging. Snow cones at the Deloitte stop were awesome. If I could figure out how to get all of my fluid intake via snow cone, I'd never have to worry about dehydration. Fayetteville was just as great as people told me. The residents were out in full force cheering everyone on, and riding through a storm of bubbles created by a bubble-making machine picked me up even though I was starting to tire. And, as usual, the people cheering along the route who had MS or family/friends with MS thanking us for riding were an inspiration and helped make it a very special day for me.

In a way, I'm glad the second day was canceled. It's been frustrating that each of the two years I've signed up for the MS 150, one of the days has been canceled, but I can now say that I've done the MS 150 - it just took me a year. I also think the organizers, faced with a hard decision, made the right one. Riding in the rain, especially heavy rain, would have been dangerous with riders of all skill levels riding so closely together. Braking at intersections and - at one point - a 90 degree left turn right at the bottom of a hill would have resulted in a number of individual and group crashes, I'm sure. While it would be nice to say I rode the complete MS 150, it's ultimately about the cause and I'm happy to have participated, shortened ride or not.

the sci guy 

Sounds great!

Did they make the right call today? I was up in NJ but finally was able to look at the radar once my plane landed back here in Houston and it looked like there was some gnarly **** to the east of Austin.

the sci guy 

Man, if what was supposed to go through Austin and the ride route was anything like what we just went through on the west side, they made the right choice. We were without power for almost 2 hours but didn't need it because the lightning was absurd!

txags92

They absolutely made the right call! Between about 11 am and 2pm, the area around and west of Bastrop got about 5 inches of rain. That would have been a disaster with 5-10 thousand riders in the middle of it. I know a few folks might have been able to finish ahead of the storms, but the vast majority of the riders would have been somewhere in the middle of those storms.

As for the ride, it was a blast for me. I took it easy and rode with my wife all day long. She was riding hard and was pretty sore afterward, but we finished the day with a 17.7 mph avg for 94 miles. By far her fastest day one ever.

the sci guy 

Well let's start crossing our fingers for next year

SAGit

17.7? That is a fast avg.

I saw y'all waiting at a parking lot on FM 529 near Barker Cypress. I waved but y'all didn't see me.

memebag

It was a fantastic ride. The tailwind was perfect. Nice cloud cover kept it cool. My bike didn't break down too much. The riders were courteous and pretty professional, all things considered.

I get the feeling a bunch of people didn't do the ride at all. LaGrange was pretty empty compared to 2 years ago, even before the buses headed back to Houston. The big oil companies seemed to have smaller teams this year. I saw a bunch of empty or near empty tents.

Saint Arnold and Karbach had a good time, though. The Saint Arnold support crew (all volunteers) are the best. As soon as I stepped off my bike they handed me a cold Art Car IPA. That's a great tasting beer after a 100 mile ride. They cooked perfect beef, pork and chicken tacos, boudin, and had massive quantities of kolaches, klobasniky and hot coffee ready as soon as we woke up Sunday morning.

I planned to party all night, but I'm older than I think I am. By 6pm I was very sleepy. I still had a great time and can't wait to do it again.

the sci guy 

No "seemed" about it! Half the oil industry has been laid off. We actually had a layoff on Thursday/Friday, the day before the ride - and lost 1 or 2 folks from the already tiny company team.
I think a lot of people, with either being already out of work, or the potential for being out of work at any moment, kept them from paying to register, and paying the $400 fundraising, or asking already out of work people to donate.

It was not a good year overall for raising money. Our company, though small, did not sponsor the team this year. And I think a lot of the big companies cut waaayy back.

So I'm not surprised there were a lot of empty tents.

I'm thinking of riding with Blue Line next year.

txags92

Sorry I didn’t see you.We started from our house and were waiting at Clay and Barker Cypress for the rest of our team to come up Barker Cypress from their start location down at Park Row and I-10.We rode with them to the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] breakpoint, then went on our own after that because they were taking too long at the BP.The numbers I heard were that they only had about 10000-11000 signed up.They usually allow about 16,000 to sign up, knowing that quite a few won’t actually ride, and have about 13,000 riders.This year, with only 11,000 signed up and the late changes to logistics due to the cancellation, I wouldn’t be surprised if we only had around 7500 or so actually riding.That is a shame, because it was a great day to ride with that tailwind.It did make for one good thing though…no lines for showers at Camp St Marks!Maybe it was finishing early too, but it was nice to walk right up and go into the shower truck instead of waiting in line for 30-60 mins as in years past.

msd3075

Didn't realize there was another Saint Arnold team member on here. Glad to see you had a good time. I had to head back Saturday night because my wife gave me the ultimatum that if I skipped out on two different ride offers to come back on Saturday simply because I wanted to stay the night in the tent, I was SOL on her coming to get me Sunday morning.

Scott P

I will most likely be looking for a new team next year. My current team was down to eight members. One of those was laid off by the company earlier in the week, so half the team, including three current employees decided not to wear the team kits in some sort of unseen protest. Once wind of that hits corporate, any remaining support for the team will evaporate. I don't know if I want to ride for a team like St. Arnold or Karbach for the atmosphere and fun or ride for a team where my friend is captain.

I just want to ride both days of these years.

memebag

I work for a small company. Only two of us bike, and the other guy refuses to ride the MS 150 because of the dangerous amateurs. So I signed up with Saint Arnold for the 2014 season and have had a blast every year. This last year was by far the best, though, since they organized rides all year long, and provided plentiful post-ride hydration. Everyone is very supportive. I really hope they do team rides all year again.

msd3075

The plan is to have a couple social rides per month through the summer and then the Saturday/Sunday schedule again starting late July or early August for Bike Around the Bay training.

Scott P

I will probably start riding with the Kingwood Starbucks group (if I am fast enough to keep up) or the Bike Barn group on weekends.

memebag

That would be great. I just hope the people who organize the rides don't get too burned out. It seems like a whole lot of work.

SaintArnoldBike

Thanks but I'm good to go

memebag

Yay!

SaintArnoldBike

The Saint Arnold bike team is open to the public for the 2017 MS 150. Please note, you must register and pay the MS Society in addition to Saint Arnold to participate with the team. In addition to the perks listed, we have weekly training rides and an obscene about of beer. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Cheers!

Join Our BP MS 150 Bike Team ? Saint Arnold Brewing Company