Colorado River Bikefest

Colorado River Bikefest

Ballinger, Texas

April 26, 2014

Registration was fast and easy with all of the Lion volunteers.

Loyd

Ready for the ride.

Across the street from the registration table, and on the Court House lawn, stands the Charles N. Noyes statue. Charles was 21 when his horse fell and Charles broke his neck. His parents wanted to memorialize his passing and commissioned the statue. At first it was to be placed where Charles fell, but in 1919 it was located on the Court House lawn.

Some of the flowers lining a pathway to the Court House.

Christine

Ready to ride--a short ride as her arm/shoulder hurt after she rides a while.

Brian

Ready for any distance.

Jerry

You can tell he has serious plans for the 30K ride.

Jesse

Trail blazer on the 60K ride.

Adam, talking with Loyd. I am not sure what distance Adam rode.

Line ready. One official said that over 60 riders showed up. Not bad as a lot of the San Angelo regulars did not make this day.

Christine is lining up with the short ride bikers. She was planning on just an out and back so she could ride as much or as little as she wanted--and felt like.

It looks like a nice pretty day with gentle rolling hills, but of course this was straight into the wind. I will have to admit, the wind did not get to the predicted velocity but enough that one was well aware of the "breeze". 

We have had a couple of light showers recently which has helped the vegetation somewhat.

Brian slowed down to let Loyd and me catch up.

Jerry at the 30K turn off. He burned up the rode and came in second place for that distance. He was already gone by the time we finished so I didn't get to see his prize.

Not only had Brian slowed down to let us catch up, but he lead the way a lot to allow us to draft. We took turns but Brian would scoot ahead when we would approach an incline and would lead us up the hill.

Finally. A cross wind and level terrain.

This was the second and last rest stop on our 60K route. For the last 16 miles we had a tailwind. The ride became pure fun.  

Jesse seems happy that the wind was going to be in our favor. And he took advantage of it. This was the last time I saw him on the ride.

Brian is showing his pleasure as we get closer to the finish line.

And just down the road is the finish line. A lot of volunteers were there greeting the riders as they finished.



And they were giving out awards. Loyd and I show off our "major award" ribbons. We are looking forward to next year's ride and calm winds.