Denton Turkey Roll

Don and I rode the 71-mile route of the Denton Turkey Roll Bike Rally today. Jarrod was there too but only had time to do the 35-mile route due to family commitments. We arrived at the North Texas Fairgrounds at about 8:00 and picked up our packets and long-sleeved T-shirts. The weather was still a little on the chilly side but was warming up quickly so no armwarmers or overshirts were used even at the beginning of the ride.

There was a pretty good turnout - probably 750-800 riders - due to the nice weather and no other scheduled races with which to compete. Because we were lolly-gagging too much at the car, Don and I got to the starting line a little late and began the ride in the middle-to-back of the pack. We were surrounded by many riders of varying ability so we carefully manuvered towards the front. Along the way, we said hello to some families doing the shorter routes as well as a group of TNT-ers. ("Go Team!", I shouted)

Even with taking it slow in the beginning, Don and I had done 19 miles at the 1:00 hour mark. However, the pace definitely slowed down after that. We hung together until the last rest stop (about 61 miles and 4 1/2 hours into the ride) and Don SAG-ed it back. I ended up doing 76.44 miles (about 7 miles extra - the 71 mile route was probably about 69.5 miles) in almost exactly 5 hours (4 hours and 30 minutes of ride time).

The start of the ride had smooth roads, but FM 455 had a lot of chip-seal. Marion Rd and the route all the way up to Lone Oak Road and Ray Roberts Lake was also fairly smooth. We'll have to see if we can add some of those roads into our "Denton TNT Loop" bike training ride route.

At the 32-mile rest stop in Era (about half-way), we grabbed some barbecue sandwiches before turning south. We didn't realize that as we headed into Bolivar that we had ridden right past Jarrod's house (his mailing address is Sanger so didn't realize that he was so close to the route) - we could have stopped by and said hello. :-)

The entire way from Era to Krum was pretty tough. We had a decent head-wind coming at us from the south and the chip-seal roads were rough. After the last rest stop in Krum, I picked up the pace (didn't want Don to wait too long at the finish) and the road conditions were much improved as I headed back into Denton. Back at the Fairgrounds, we had some delicious hot dogs off the grill and some ice cold water before making the drive back home.

Route map:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/kml/episode.kml?episodePkValues=4460522

Additional MotionBased ride info: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4460522

Ride Review:

• Course: 2/5 - mix of good roads and not-so-good ones; Era to Krum was chip-seal and no shoulder; course was well-marked; no traffic control except at the start - riders on their own for the potentially dangerous left turn onto FM 455.


• Rest Stops: 2.5/5 - very limited selection - some bananas and cookies; barbecue sandwhiches at the half-way stop were the lone standout; later stops and the finish line ran out of Gatorade; stops were easy to see from the road


• Logistics: 3/5 - Denton starting line meant that we didn't have to drive too far and 9:00 AM let me sleep in a little more; good web site and follow-up email after registration; no issues with race day packet pick-up - but packet was weak; only $20 for pre-registration; parking at the North Texas Fairgrounds was plentiful and post-race meal of hot dogs


• Overall: 2.5/5 - a pretty bare-bones ride and the route was not the best, but I will probably do it in the future if the weather is nice because it is close and there is an option for a 70+ mile ride at the end of the season