Tulsa Tough – 2 days of riding
Saturday
I rode 100k (62 miles) at the Tulsa Tough with Chris, a friend from Owasso. Starting weather was good. There are a few fairly good hills heading out of Tulsa and at mile 8 I can remember thinking I was more tired than I should have been. Not long after that my body woke up and everything was good.
584 total riders for all rides
Chris and Sean at the start
The 30 mile rest stop is in Avant. We broke a rule leaving Avant; or maybe just showed no common sense. We headed out of the stop straight toward a lightening storm. Fortunately it dissipated as we rode. Unfortunately there was a good uphill climb.
The 40 mile rest stop was in Skiatook. We left this stop going into a dark storm. We got some cold “stinging” rain between miles 40-50. Several deep puddles assured complete water saturation of the socks. The only other notable hardship is a steep hill at about mile 55. We could see a guy in front of us struggle up the hill weaving back and forth. A police car was behind him and we found out later that the cop had sounded his siren right behind him.
Sean and Chris at the finish.
Saturday ride stats
Total riders for 100k = 279
Sean finished 128th , Chris finished 132nd
Total time: 3:42:18 - (Chris was 43 seconds later)
Time from leader: +1:08:33.000
Overall pace: 16.7mph
Sunday
I rode 100k (62 miles) for a second day. This time I rode by myself. I did see fellow Hotter ‘n Hell rider Bobby at the start and finish. In the middle I just talked to whomever was closest. The first 10+ miles were great. We had a police escort all down Riverside Drive and through Jenks. Riding 20 mph in a large pack is fairly easy. After the police escort was gone the lead pack took off and I started losing site of them quickly.
Rest Stop #2
I lost several items on this bike ride. The first of which was my bike mirror at rest stop #2 in Keifer. This mirror clips on glasses or a helmet. I have a habit of knocking it off. Anyway, this time it landed in the portapotty urinal. I bit it farewell. Maybe some less than fortunate rider retrieved it later. On a different note, there is a mean hill right after this rest stop.
Rest Stop #3
I debated if I was going to stop in Kellyville. I didn’t really need anything. I decided to stop because a little boy was handing out water. I thought he would like it if somebody took water from him. Leaving that stop we heard reports of storms, lightening, and hail in Mannford. I figured it would be gone before I got close. For the second day proving I have lost all common sense.
It wasn’t long after that when I realized it was VERY DARK. Of course I was wearing sunglasses. I removed them and it was still VERY DARK. That didn’t bode well. I would occasionally hear hair ripping through the trees. I stopped by a small group of trees for a bit of shelter. Then a bike passed and I couldn’t resist following. That put me out on Highway 33 with no possible cover, horrible wind, and nickel size hail. I got hit a couple of times with hail. After about a mile the storm lessened.
Then I came upon a group of bikers standing in the road. As I pulled up to see what was wrong I realized that they had just been beaten by golfball+ size hail. I saw some guys hand with a large raised welt. I also saw several bruises. I heard a couple of guys were bleeding. Part of the group got in a ditch and part of them went ahead to a farmhouse. I heard one guy say his helmet was cracked; one guy lost a garmin gps to a direct hit; and one guy had a broken rear derailer and was left with 2 gears. I guess the good thing is we all wear helmets.
The riders that I had found were part of the lead group. Most of these guys were trying to finish 100 miles in under 5 hours. I got to ride with a number of these guys for about the next ten miles. I did see a chain reaction wreck. Only one bike went down. The lead rider swerved which caused the bike behind to swerve and the third bike swerved and went down. I came close to hitting the head of that rider as he slid in front of me. Because of the slick wet roads he just slid and didn’t have any apparent injuries. I talked to him at the finish line.
The group I was with didn’t stop at rest stop #4. We did however learn that the 100 mile route was cancelled and they were asking everybody to take the 100k path. So I got to ride with some of these guys longer. Several miles after this stop we hit another storm front. There was no hail but the wind and rain were amazing. We darted into a neighborhood. I took shelter behind a large sign with two other bikers. Three other bikers went into an open garage of the first house in the neighborhood. After a few minutes the rest of us went in the garage as well. After a couple of minutes I walked around to the front of the house to announce that 6 bikers had taken refuge in their garage. The owner didn’t seem to mind and he brought us towels and gave us a weather update. This does lead to my second loss on this ride. My cell phone was dead. At one point it came on (by itself) and started buzzing and wouldn’t stop. I removed the battery.
My bike still partially braving the elements.
This was a good group of guys to be with. At least 4 of us were riding Specialized.
Picture of a few us as we were about to leave.
I think we left after about 20 minutes. At that point my body had cooled down. The wind and rain felt VERY cold. A few riders stopped at the next rest stop so we were down to 4. A bit down the road we were going around a corner and my helmet visor picked that time to fly off. I went back to get it and never saw that group again.
At this point we only had about 10 miles to go. Most of it was on a long flat road. Unfortunately all the rain had flooded the road in a number of places. It wasn’t hard to ride through but it was deep enough that I was pedaling with my feet getting submerged. My feet were cold and chaffing. On top of that it was into a head wind for those final miles.
Lastly I had planned to watch one of the bike races when I was done. The storm had cancelled all the races. On the first day of riding I had commented to Chris that we couldn’t get any wetter. After Sunday I realized that I could get wetter. I will have to say that this year was Tulsa “Tough”.
Sunday ride stats
Total riders for 100k = 279
finished 17th
Total time: 3:53:24
Time from leader: +16:59.000
Overall pace: 15.9mph
* not bad considering having to stop for weather.
