Day 9 - Houston to La Grange

The Route

Saturday morning came very early. We were all gathered together and ready to go at 4:45 am. After a big dinner filled with carbohydrates and lots of bread we all would have preferred to sleep another eight hours, but we got ourselves out of bed and going. Saturday was also the day to meet our new friends with Team Toyota. The team meets every year at a Lexus dealership close to the start of the MS150 to start out as a team. Today we will learn what our membership with the team would provide us.

The route today is supplied by the MS150 organization, which was a relief to us to not have to organize and document a route. The route will overlap part of the route we took on Thursday back into Bellville. It will be interesting to see the same route in reverse.

As you can tell by the look on Jim's face to the left, it was very early in the morning. Of course Gail and her other Team Toyota friends were discussing how to drop the new guys.

All of the Quattro Assi guys were raring to go, though I think the adrenaline of the moment wore off pretty quickly. We were all excited to go, but we could also tell the week was beginning to wear on us. But we had all just bought these awesome Team Toyota jerseys and weren't about to let our new team or ourselves down.

The Ride

Again we were without a mechanical issue through the entire day. We rode a portion of our route from Thursday in reverse. It was interesting to find out that the reason we felt so good during that stretch on Thursday was because it is all down hill into Houston from the west. Going the opposite way it becomes uphill by way of rolling hills. Of course we were no longer strapped to our panniers and racks, so the lack of weight helped out.

Many of the towns along the way turned out to cheer the MS riders. When nearly 11,000 riders pass through towns of 2,000 people it is a big event. All of the hotels, bed and breakfasts, and other place willing to lodge people for the weekend were booked with riders looking for somewhere besides a tent to call home. The MS150 is a big weekend for all of these towns. They will be sold out all weekend. The MS150 provided buses that would drive up to 50 miles away from the finish line to transport people to their hotel.

Rest Stops & Lunch

Every rest stop was packed with people along the way. To start this ride the organizers send out riders in waves of 500 riders. It takes about 10 minutes to get a wave going and they try to wait 5-10 minutes between waves being sent out to help with traffic. If you are in the back of the starting line it could take a couple of hours just to get to the starting line. Luckily we started at the Lexus dealership and didn't have to deal with the congestion at the start, our first sign that this Team Toyota setup was going to be an excellent deal.

The team advantage continued at lunch time. When we passed the standard MS150 lunch stop the lines were very long with very few places in the shade to sit and eat a nice lunch. Another advantage to Team Toyota is the wonderful support they provide to their riders. They had reserved a gazebo in a park just down the street from the regular lunch stop and had lunch ready for Team Toyota riders. There were places in the shade to sit and eat, separate restrooms (no lines), and excellent food to get us ready for the afternoon. We are very appreciative to Team Toyota, their sponsors, and everyone who put this together. At this point we were thinking how could this get any better.

Finish Line

The finish line was unexpected. If any of you have ever done any of the local MS150 rides or club rides the end is usually a non-event, except for the rider having achieved something for himself. When Sean and I came through there was a huge crowd of supporters cheering everyone on to the finish. The last stretch was lined with American and Texas flags, and a large banner across the actual finish read "Welcome to La Grange".

This was a welcome touch and inspired most everyone as they passed through the finish.

Team Comforts

Upon reaching the end of the ride we began to realize the benefits of being asked to join Team Toyota. Setting up accommodations for almost 11,000 riders, plus close to 2,000 volunteers, plus all the team support personnel is not an easy task. La Grange has a normal population of about 4,000, which grew to nearly 17,000 for the weekend. When we entered the tent area it was amazing to see all of the tents and all of the cars.

When we reached the Team Toyota tent we quickly realized how nice the Team and Gail had been to us. The tent had a sleeping area, port-a-cans set aside for Team Toyota only, masseuses in the tent with priority given to Team Toyota, and the most important piece of all - food and drink without lines. Outback Steakhouse provided all the cooking and food for Team Toyota for the weekend and would even prepare French toast for us in the morning. We were truly grateful for being included with this team and were proud to represent the team. All of Quattro Assi thanks Team Toyota for the hospitality they showed us during this weekend.

Riding Update

Today we felt like we were riding on air. After we lost the panniers and the 25 pounds that went with them pushing the bike over the route seemed a whole lot easier. Leaving Houston was very flat for about 40 miles, which led to feeling even faster. Add on the tail wind and it didn't even feel like we were working at it. Of course that feeling left pretty quickly when our legs remembered that this was our sixth day of riding our of seven. 

Miles: 101.45
Average Speed: 18.79 mph
Total Trip: 524.60 Miles
Total Average Speed: 15.88 mph

Weather

Once again the weather was excellent. It was overcast with a slight breeze in the morning to keep it cool. This gave way to sun and partly cloudy skies in the afternoon and some added warmth. We could have asked for better riding weather. Today's high was 88*.