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BAM Bike Around Midlothian – Midlothian, TX — 12 Comments

1. I’ve done alot of bike rides and this was by far the worst supported I’ve seen. The rest areas were great and the chicken at the end was nice and the start was desighned good, however the 40 intersections we had to turn had no body in them, the signs were rediculous, they were 3×5 arrows on a card, we had to be redirected in two occasions. At the begining we went through downtown and there was no one at intersections and no cops!! and come to find out the motor cycle leading went the wrong way, we were having to ride around cars at lights and luckily nobody hit us… Here’s what topped the cake! after the first rest area a guy in a dully rolled past a large group of us and because there was no marking on most of the route identifying hazards a man crashed when he flipped going over huge pot holes and got hurt real bad, I called 911 and was transfered to Midlothian 911 operator and she had no idea about the bike race and had no idea were the rest area was at so luckily another cyclist knew the street crossing we were close to… I’m sorry to complain but this was very bad! They didn’t fix a wooden bridge crossing and it had 1.5 inch cracks between the 2×6 and someone crashed. They have alot of improvements to make, I can bet most riders won’t be back until it gets better… The planners need to go see other races like Goatneck and Hotter than hell and see what precautions they take… Respectfully RS USN retired and loving it…

2. Whoa! This is not what I would want to ride. From your report there are many things to improve. Experience organizing rides is a must. Thanks for the comments. Maybe they can learn from this.

3. I have to agree! I also have done many rides, among them four Centuries, lots of metric Centuries, half centuries, etc. This ride was the most problematic ride I have been on. When the support was there it was fine, but it was haphazardly supported. Markings in the road when they were there) were in black spray paint (as opposed to yellow or orange), and thus were very hard to see. After mile 14 or so, many of us didn’t know if we were lost or not. I also don’t know why the 65 mile ride didn’t include Texas Plume, which would have made this perhaps the most challanging ride in the area. I was very dissapointed in that.

   All of this would have been minor annoyances on an otherwise good ride (although I was upset to hear about the rider and the pothole in the other post, if not for the wooden bridge. This was the single most hazardous thing I have seen in 5 years of fairly serious cycling. Someone, who had to be a fast and skilled cyclist, got very hurt. I don’t know the update, but it sounded extremely serious, if not worse. They closed the route after the accident, but only temporarily. We were warned about the bridge, but it came upon us very suddenly. I doubt most riders realized they were on it until they were actually on it. It was not a structure you could really see coming. It had no guardrails, and on each side of this narrow thing was what looked like a 30 to 40 foot sheerdrop. There should have been MAJOR signage and a person posted there to make sure everyone slowed down to a crawl–or actually walked their bikes across it–particularly after the accident! (it wasn’t long, but it was VERY bumpy and dangerous). I pray for the cyclist who fell off the bridge.

   All of this is a shame, because this route and ride has great potential. Very little chip seal, nice scenery in many parts, and some nice challanges. It needs better planning, more support at strategic points, better signage, etc. There were really good people involved in the support and planning. The rest stops were very good, with really noce people. I do thank everyone involved. I am sure they feel horrible about the accident on the bridge, as do I. I would do the ride again, with the assumption that the planners will have learned something during their inaugeral year.

   I am not writing to slam the organizers. I write because I think area cyclists need to know about these problems.

4. Thanks for your thoughts and comments. The Pineywoods Purgatory in Lufkin has two bridges like this on the 65 mile route. They have a person stationed at the first bridge (the second one is only a few hundred feet away) who slows people down and warns them to stay in the valley not on the car wheel paths. In addition there are bright orange arrows on the bridge itself pointing to the correct path. On a ride before they started doing this I made the mistake of riding on the raised boards and got my tire stuck. Fortunately I was not going too fast and caught myself before falling. I also will be praying for the injured rider.

   It is apparent the organizers of the ride have the right idea and potential they just need help from other ride organizers to fix the rough spots. Does anyone want to offer their assistance?

5. i want to second and third the above comments on this ride. i was on the 65 mile route as well and noted all the problems above. in addition to the bridge problem, when i got back my distance meter read only 57 miles. i realized that when i got home, i missed a turn due to the poor marking and signs. the road arrows for the 65 mile route were in a dark green and they blended all to well with the black pavement. plus some of their signs had blown over. it really put me out that i missed a turn and i was following other riders, so about 50+ of us missed the same turn in retrospect. i ended up riding with two other riders and if it were not for the three of us, we would have missed at least one more turn for the each of us. our ‘mantra’ for the ride became “hey, you missed a turn”.

   this ride has great potential. they just need more support in terms of signs, road paint (in the proper color) and people out there floating. they need to contact the organizer of the Grandview texas ride. that ride was awesome and had a LOT of turns but they went out of their way to make each turn clear.

   all the negativity aside, BAM put out the best t-shirt of the year. i will actually wear this one… 🙂

6. Despite the problems it appears this ride has some strong points that can help overcome the mistakes. I will have to check out the awesome T-shirt. Road markings are important. There is a quasi-official color system for markings. This is where the experienced organizers can help.

7. The cooments are all accurate. I am not sure if I went over the bridge or not. I do know I ended at 61.7 from being directed at the wrong intersection. Cop support in odd spots but not downtown surprised me. Great rest stop in may pearl inside the fire station was cool. I hope the guy that was careflighted was ok. I got a report that another guy flipped his bike and landed on his shoulder, got up, continued to the next rest stop and was sag wagoned back.

8. I hope all of these comments help the organizers to made some changes. Other rides have had accidents but this seems to have hit a nerve with several riders.

9. I think that a few of the accidents and a lot of the misdirections could have been avoided with better signage, warnings, and a good safety inspection of the course.

   Wrecks happen… but knowing that this one could have been avoided makes it worse.

10. Riding a bike on the open roads can be dangerous. I have had my share of crashes.

11. Any idea how we can find out the status of the guy that fell off the bridge and had to be taken away by Care Flight?

12. It will probably be difficult to get information due to the privacy requirements. I checked the Midlothian Mirror newspaper website but there is no information there. The ride seems to have made a big splash in the newspaper. You can read the article at this link. Midlothian’s first bicycle event draws more than 900 participants
    You might try going to the ride website and sending an email from their contact us form. http://www.bamride.org

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