After several years of rest the Pineywoods Purgatory bike ride in Lufkin came back to life today. Because of the 7 AM start time I drove to Lufkin yesterday and spent the night in a hotel in Nacogdoches. Otherwise I would’ve had to leave home around 4:30 AM or earlier. This morning I left the hotel around 6 AM and arrived at the parking lot near the start around 6:25 AM. I picked up my packet yesterday so no need to stand in line.

Weather was a problem. It was 49 degrees and sunrise wasn’t until 15 minutes after the start. I was prepared with shorts, leg warmers, long sleeve thermal jersey, a Texbiker short sleeve jersey, and full finger gloves. As I waited for the start I walked around and handed out a few Texbiker business cards. Then I got the Cervelo Caledonia bike out of the Jeep. I tried a different method to hold the Cervelo in the Jeep and it worked better than the bungee cord but was cumbersome. I need to find a better way.

I rode over to the starting area about 5 minutes before the start. I think there were about 300 cyclists around the area. At 7:03 I heard the start your ride yell and we were off. I had loaded the route into my Bolt computer for turn-by-turn directions and it was a good thing, no map in the registration packet. The route was marked by colored arrows on the road. This became a problem later around the 6.3 mile point when 3 arrows pointed to cross TX 103. I didn’t think it was right and the Bolt computer beeped at me several times but I continued. That was a mistake. The arrows were for the gravel routes and when I saw the gravel I turned around and headed back to TX 103. On the way back two large dogs were in a driveway but they barked a couple of times and that was all.

On TX 103 back to the route lots of hills were to be climbed. The shoulder was chip and seal but not overly rough, the rough roads were still to come. At FM 1819 I turned right riding behind two other cyclists I joined on TX 103. Because of the side trip the route miles were different but I was following the route now. At rest stop 1 just over TX 7 there was a table with supplies and a port-a-pottie but no body manning it. I used the port-a-pottie, ate a cereal bar and wiped my nose which was running because of the cold.

After that I rode mostly alone on FM 1819, FM 1247 to the rest stop at FM 1911 which was manned. I didn’t stop but continued on. The hills were mounting up but my legs and gearing on the Cervelo got up them, sometimes at 6 mph but no walking. FM 1911 brought me to US69 and the turn back towards Lufkin. I rode through Wells and Central where I stopped at rest stop 10, ate a couple of bars, drank some Gatorade like blue stuff and some water. Then it was onto FM 843. More hills but I still climbed them, again at 6 mph part of the way. The route moved from FM 843 to FM 2251 which took me to US69. I rode across US69 and onto city streets. Someplace I missed the arrows and my Bolt computer routed me on streets back to the finish line at 11:20 AM and 54.7 miles later.

I was busy changing gears today with 73 RD changes according to the AXS.SRAM.com ride report. I used the 35×15 gears the most for 1:50:46 (27.8 miles), followed by the 35×17 for 1:15:25 (13.9 miles), 35×13 for 27:13 (7.6 miles). 14073 Crank Revolutions to get around those 54.7 miles.

I got a Strava medal on every segment listed. The last time I rode the Pineywoods Purgatory was October 4th, 2014 covering 68.63 miles.