Harold was nice enough to put together a little ride report about the Lion’s Pride, bike ride in Ennis this weekend.
If you have any ride reports or pictures let us know and we’ll post them too!
I left home at 6:30 AM heading for Ennis and the “Lion Pride Bike Ride” sponsored by the Ennis FFA, arrived at Ennis High School at 7:30 AM to a dark cool (42F) morning that promised to be a beautiful day. There were few cars in the parking lot and the registration table was working with the other early arrivals. The volunteers were courteous and ready to check off your name, hand you a number and a ditty bag along with the event T-shirt. Now do I get ready or sit in the car with the heater? Better get ready and adjust to the cold because I know the first 10 miles will be chilly since the sun is just coming up. The parking lot fills and it looks like a good crowd will be riding today.
Along the entry to the parking lot are green stripes and signs showing the starting locations. The “No long pants or gloves” folks line up at the 62 marker, the long pants, gloves and ear warmer folks line up at the 42 marker and the properly dressed folks line up at the 22 marker. It’s getting close to 8:45 better line up at the 42 marker, my ride of choice. A few minutes later the street is filled with riders. It’s 3 minutes before 9 and the police pick-up driver hollers over his PA, “Follow Me, we are turning left at the stop” and the ride is on, escorted by lights flashing and siren blaring, heading westerly over the Bardman Lake bridge to our first left turn.
The roads in general are standard Texas FM and county roads with chip seal in various stages of ageing. The roads are better than the last time I rode “Lion Pride”. The smoothest places can generally be found on the right side of the right lane. The shoulders on TX 34 are wide and smooth, a great way to start the first 6 miles and finish the last 10 miles. The toughest section, for me, was the newer chip seal from mile 22 to mile 31, boy did my arms and body ache, felt like a vibrator with the speed control broken on high. There are a few easy hills (5% largest I remember seeing), if you compare to Goatneck or Krazy Kicker these roads are flat.
The rest stops are placed about every 12 -15 miles and were stocked with the basics-bananas, cookies, pickles, Gatorade, water and a Porta-Potty. The FFAers manning the stops were helpful, even though they could have smiled more between the shivers.
The SAG support was the best I have seen this year, I have ridden 6 previous charity rides this year and 13 last year and none have had as much SAG on the course as “Lion Pride”. It was a good ride as I saw no flats or accidents, maybe lots of SAG is good for the “luck of the ride.”
Maybe the best part was the hamburgers at the end of the ride. The biggest, completely filled a large bun and nearly ½” thick with fresh tomatoes, lettuce and pickles along with catsup, mustard and a bottle of water. What a day, sun is bright, no clouds and 58 at high noon.
This was a great “Basic Essentials” ride.