The Tour Dallas ride was a resounding success. We all had a great time. In the 20 miler group we finished 3rd place (from the end).

From 2009 Tour Dallas Ride

Kat rode the full 20 miles on her own bike. Tiger started out behind dad and the Bear in the trailer behind Mom. After a few difficult hills we decided to switch the trailer and afterburner.

From 2009 Tour Dallas Ride

Once I started pulling the trailer I realized that it seems to be having some kind of alignment problem. There was far more drag than it should have. I had just recently put new tires on, but I must have gotten something out of whack. This didn’t slow me down too much at first, but as the ride went on it started to hold me back quite a bit.

We all had a great time, and the kids even got some cool medals for completing the ride.

From 2009 Tour Dallas Ride

We started preparing for the 25 mile ride in July. Our original plan was for me to pull the trailer bike (the half-bike looking thing that attaches to my bike) and take one kid’s bike. The two kids could switch off between the small bike and being towed when they needed to rest. We quickly realized that this would not work. Kat was just too big for her bike and they both struggled in various hilly spots with the small, single-speed bike. Tiger wasn’t able to go more than about 3 miles at a time on his own, but that’s not too bad when you consider that he just learned to ride without training wheels on July 8th!! We couldn’t set the seat height high enough for Kat and low enough for Tiger at the same time so they were both uncomfortable. So, we checked Kat’s savings account and decided that we would pay for half of a new bike for her. She picked a purple Diamondback girl’s bike with 6 gears. I really wanted her next bike to have at least one shifter. My hope was that with the gear advantage and larger bike she would be able to make it the 25 miles on her own. We only had a few weeks for her to get used to it, so we went on several rides working our way up in miles. We got as high as 18 miles two weeks before the big ride.

We loaded up the bikes and headed to WF on Friday. The ride was to start at 7:00AM Saturday. I was concerned about parking and getting to our designated starting area, so we got up early and made it there just after 6:30AM. There were over 11,000 riders in this year’s ride. The official 100 mile race starts first, then all the fun riders head out in order of the distance (100 miles, 100K, 50 miles, 25 miles, then 10K). After waiting our turn, we crossed the start line at 7:30AM.

We held an average speed just over 8 miles per hour and finished in about 3 hours riding time. With 2 long rest stops and multiple water breaks on the roadside we finished the ride in 4 hours and 15 minutes. This slow of a pace was hard for me at times. It’s particularly hard to go slow and keep my balance while pulling Tiger on the trailer bike. I have to compensate for his moving around or leaning and it’s just easier to do when you have more speed to give you some stability. But this was an impressive pace for Kat to maintain. We are very proud of her for finishing this ride all on her own. It was a challenge for sure, but she stuck it out and made it.

You can check out more photos from the ride here.

“The new phone books are here! The new phone books are here! . . . I’m somebody now! Millions of people look at this book everyday! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity – your name in print – that makes people. I’m in print! Things are going to start happening to me now.”
— Navin R. Johnson, The Jerk c. 1979

Well it may not be as prestigious as getting my name in the phone book, but I did get quoted a few times in the local Fort Worth news paper. There was an article about bicycling in the city and specifically riding to work. I had been cycling to work since May, so the reporter was interested in some of my experiences.

You can read the whole article here.