Is anyone riding the MS150 this weekend? If so, we should all hook up at some point and take a few RBR.com contributors pictures for posterity. Having a beer or two with everyone at Lake Texoma state park is maybe not the worst I've ever had either.

You should be able to pick me out of the bunch fairly easily. I'm 6'5" and riding a 63cm Trek2300. The bike is silver with red and black accents, red tires and bar tape. I'll be wearing a white Limar F105 helmet and wearing a blue/white Texas Wheels jersey on Saturday.

Come say hello. I'd like to meet you face to face.

J.

I'll be riding also. From the look of the weather forecast, :( I'll be the one in scuba gear!

I'm riding with the Plano Cycling and Fitness bunch as this is my first year doing this ride. They put together some great training rides by the way. I don't imagine I'll spend all my time riding with just them as I tend to wander around some.

My game plan for tomorrow is to float around some till I find a decent group, (likes to talk and rides a reasonable pace). I don't want to ride solo as I'll spend my time chasing whoever is in front of me and end up blowing up somewhere mid ride.

I'll be out there tomorrow in a Primal Flameout jersey, an old Giro Exodus helmet, (dark green with a fred mirror on it), riding a dark blue Lemond OCLV that looks suspiciously like it started life as a Trek. Look also for blinking bar end plugs, (I know they're "fred" but I like them).

I'm taking the easy way out on the overnite as my wife will be up there with me. (She is volunteering doing communication work with the amateur radion group so she can support me, (I'm diabetic)). She's also 30 weeks pregnant and doesn't like the idea of driving back to McKinney to an empty house, so we are staying at a motel in Dennison. We'll probably hang around the campground for awhile checking out the festivities though.

Semper Fi and praying for a tailwind!

Looks like the weather is gonna be ugly tomorrow, but what the hell, eh? It'll be interesting to see how many and who shows, as the weatherman is calling for Thunderstorms around start time.

I'm riding with Fiesty Devils. I'm six-foot-two and ride a black and TI Litespeed Tuscany. Probably be wearing a cheap yellow rain jacket and PI shoe covers...

The forecast for Sunday looks sweet, though.

How'd you like that weather on Saturday?! I've never been to a rally that had four school bus loads of people sagging in from the 22 mile marker. And from what I've heard, at least half the people sagged in on Saturday. Maybe the most difficult day I've ever had on the bike, mid-40's, raining, and a 20mph headwind for 94 miles. Brutal. But at least I finished. Thank goodness Sunday was a better day.

Sorry I wasn't able to come meet anyone, but by the time I finished and ate something, all I wanted to do was get dry, get warm, take a shower and go to sleep.

How did you do?

I agree, Saturday was an absolutely miserable freaking day. I've never been so cold, wet and miserable on a bike before! And I even tried to dress for it, tights and jacket. I should have added my wetsuit to the mix and it might have been better.

I managed to crash on 380, tore up my jacket, knee, and elbow. Managed to bang my crank arm loose and trashed a set of chorus cranks trying to ride. At that point I said the heck with this and jumped in the van with my wife who was doing communications support, (rover 3). Ran back home,scavanged a spare crankset and spent the rest of the day doing mechanical support, (tons of flat tires, shifting issues, out of true wheels and broken spokes) and sagging riders, (we had several people who were borderline hypothermic).

From what I heard from a ride marshall on Sunday, 1800 were registered, 1300 showed up to start, and 349 finished in Lake Texohma.

Sunday made up for Saturday though. Sunday was a beautiful ride! Those hills were a whole lot of fun.

Semper Fi

A couple of friends and myself came up with the word EPIC to describe Saturday. We finished in a little over 6 hours and were surprised to see so many who opted out of the ride. The only problems we had were 2 flats and cramping during the last 15 miles. I think the cramping was the result of one too many rest stops, the muscles cooling down, warming up and cooling down again. We felt all strong all day and took turns pulling for long periods when we got into packs. We got a late start on Sunday so we threw our bikes in the back of my truck and my friend's son drove us just across the bridge to start the Sunday leg. I'm glad we did this because I heard that the people that sagged to the first stop had to wait forever for their bikes ( apparently the truck containing the bikes headed to Ardmore and had to be called back.) I've done the Houston to Austin ride for the last 6 years and this is my first Red River Challenge and I think I'll stick with this one. The route was beautiful, people were friendly and support was unbelievable.