permalinkTour du Rouge Day 1: Houston to Beaumont
May 06, 2018

We kicked off the TdR today. The ride went quite well, with fresh legs for the first day. The Tour does it up, starting with a Police escort out of Houston. Pretty soon the group of 50 breaks up in to smaller and smaller groups of riders sticking together. I started at the tail end of the "fast" group, and ended up leading in a group of 4 making up the second group to finish. The Tour has several rest stops and a lunch stop along the way, so we don't need to worry about running out of food or water. They also do a good job of handing out laminated route cards, digital files to download to our phone, and markers along the way. Today we averaged over 19 mph, which is quite a bit faster than I can manage on my own. Having such a large group to spread the work of breaking the wind so the others behind can rest a bit in the draft helps a lot there. We got into the hotel by 2PM, so I've got time to hang out by the pool and rest up my legs for tomorrow!

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