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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by Mark Logrbrinck
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Monday, 19 March 2007 |
Springtime in Texas
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Vikki and I are off to Texas for a weekend to weekend vacation. We have never gone to Texas for this long of a period. Mainly because Vikki still fails to see the beauty of it. I myself…well you do not have to twist my arm. Do not get me wrong Vikki kinda likes Texas, she doesn’t love it like me. One good way to get here to stay is give her some good reasons to stay. So the first weekend we are staying in the Hill Country with friends.  | | click to enlarge |
The next weekend we are going to a wedding in Hondo. The friends on the first weekend are from a long time back, they use to live in LA but have moved elsewhere. The women are all artists from, and or in the fashion industry. The guys are of all different vocations. One thing we do love is the outdoors, their passion is hunting, mine is…um biking. So I arranged a wild hog hunt for them. I took care of all the accommodations. We are staying at the 4R Ranch in Tarpley. This is a great place. They have beds for 12, with room to spare. Luck has it we are staying near my favorite place in Texas to bike, the Hill Country Natural Area (HNCA). Within riding distance……sweet.
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Day 1 - Saturday, I get up at 4:30am Texas time. I got about 3 hours of sleep the night before we flew into San Antonio last night. I took my buddies to a friend's place for hunting. Now I know most people have never seen a wild pig. They are everywhere here, kind of a pest of sorts, sometimes these pests get over 300 lbs.  | | click to enlarge |
So I drive them out to my friend’s ranch and set them off with my buddy Henry, a.k.a. Whoopie. He was Whoopie long before anyone had even heard of Whoopi Goldberg. Henry’s family has 1700 acres in prime Hill Country territory. I am hoping to ride here during the week. When no one is hunting.
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I drive up to Kerrville to get my bike. I had it shipped to Hill Country Bike Works. Lisa, the owner, let me borrow a stand and put my bike together. Lisa and her husband, Adam own two shops in Kerrville and Fredericksburg. They also organize a bike race over Labor Day weekend. It was the Kelly Creek Classic, now it is the Camp Eagle Classic. They do a lot for racing in Texas. They put on great races. I hastily build my bike and rush down to the Hill Country Natural Area.  | | click to enlarge |
My buddy Alan Sansome is waiting with some locals from San Antonio. I get there at noon, we start to ride shortly after that. Three of them are on full rigid titanium, I thought I was tough on my Surly 1x1. I left my rigid Ti at home because I know how rough it is here……I mean rough. I got the bruises and scrapes to prove it. These guys are all part of Bikemojo.com, Alan being the ever fearless leader.  | | click to enlarge |
They are a great bunch. Carlos the trusted bike mechanic had cooked up a couple of pounds of bacon for preride, during ride and post ride eats. Yup folks bacon. Did I eat any? Hell yeah. Lots. We ride 3a, one of the hardest roughest downhill trails I know. I have ridden heaps. Everything else is gravy. We get back to the cars and the beers come out. They down a few and then go ride another. We ride a little more over to a great vista. It is a beautiful day. I drive to get the boys after hunting. They had little luck. We get back and the women had picked up some BBQ. A great ending to a great day.
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Day 2 - I did a little ride after visiting my mom and nephews in Hondo. I had to race back to beat a thunderstorm. It poured. The creeks are flowing for the first time in years. It actual kinda flooded in places.
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Day 3 - Well it is turning out to be a nice day. I ride some back country roads probably 25 miles. The area I am riding through is familiar. Nice packed dirt road, a cross bike would be perfect. I map out my ride to Utopia for tomorrow. It is a 40 mile ride, all on dirt roads. I only wish I had some gears, but hey what’s the hurry. I got all day. Vikki and friends are going to Bandera, “The Cowboy Capital of the World.” Should be a good day.
Tex
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