November 27th, 2011

Readyforplanb.com ride report for Day 4 of the Rapha Turkey Takeoff Challenge on Strava.

On the final day of the Rapha Turkey Takeoff Challenge on Strava I was greeted with temps in the thirties and the wind blowing over twenty miles per hour.  With those winds Ben and I decided we would do a leisurely tour around Dallas and enjoy the ride rather than heading out to the country and just banging out the miles.  It turned out to be a great call.

We rolled down the Santa Fe Trail and cut through a very quiet down town, enjoying the wide open streets cutting through the high-rises.  The Christmas decorations were already up and the tourists were out by the Dealey Plaza.  Still, we both laughed at how amazing it was that in a city of 6 million people downtown felt deserted on a cold Sunday morning.

Other early highlights of the ride were rolling through the Bishop Arts District and the Katy Trail.  The Bishop Arts District has such a cool vibe, every time I’m over there I promise myself I will go more often.  The Katy Trail was bustling with runners and walkers.

Ben showed me a new way to wind through Bluffview as we headed to Bachman Lake.  I had driven by Bachman Lake before but never intended to cycle over there as the main road is lined with pawn shops, dodgy bars and ‘dancing’ establishments.  I was grateful to have Ben show me the back way as the lake itself is great and it made for a good destination on our tour.

Cutting back through the Park Cities, the Katy Trail and downtown again, we eventually worked our way back to Lakewood and White Rock Lake.  After a quick lap around the lake we set off to head north on the White Rock Trail.

That is when it happened.  A reckless, marauding mini-van cutting through a parking lot tried to kill me.  Okay, in fairness, I screwed up and was about to run up on Ben’s back wheel so I decided to ditch on my own terms.  The mini-van just happened to be close. Close as in minding it’s own business and following the rules of the road.  The bike and I both ended up with a few scratches but were still good to go.

After the White Rock Trail up to the Low 5 and back, we were rounding in on eighty miles and enjoying the home stretch.  A few more good moments of laughter as we pedaled along the shore directly into twenty plus mile per hour winds and we were done.  Our city century was done and so was our Rapha Turkey Takeoff Challenge.Analyzing my data after the ride on Strava was as addictive as ever.  I had wrapped up a personal best week for me, logging 302 miles and finishing the 250 mile challenge from Rapha.  Ben had knocked out over 400 miles and finished ninth out of 2,273 riders.

Good stuff all around! A HUGE thanks to Strava and Rapha for coming up with the challenge. Please do it again next year and come up with some others!