Lumberton 200K - start of the new season (for me)

Wes, Jerry, and Lynn getting ready to roll

I feel like I'm kind of getting off to a slow start this year, but Saturday's ACP 200K out of Lumberton (shortest brevet offered) was a good warmup. The day started early as I had to drive 2.5 hours and still leave some extra time to get ready before the 7 a.m. start. Clear skies and above normal temperatures helped to make it a pleasant day for biking. I could not hold on to the main group after about 17 miles, so battled headwinds solo for another 13 miles to the first control. Dean was still there, and Rico Boy pulled in shortly after me, so the three of us left together in a few minutes on the next leg up to Ellerbe. The wind continued to slow our progress, but Dean and I were savoring the return trip as we thought about that nice tailwind. Rico would continue on from Ellerbe as he was going for 400K.

We picked up Jack about 5 miles shy of Ellerbe, and he would join Dean and I for most of the return to Lumberton. Ricochet Robert (see Ricochet 300 for his writeup) was already there, and would go on to complete his first 300K.

Ricochet Robert at the start

Cruising along at 19 or 20 with hardly any effort made the second half of the 200K pretty enjoyable. I did miss a turn about 12 miles from the end so Dean and I ended up with about 6 bonus miles, as well as having our worst dog encounter of the day. No bites, but I think this cur would have attacked if we hadn't stopped and faced it down. We thought it had left and then it turned around and charged across the field in a cloud of dust. Dean got away and I stopped again. I could see the owner on his tractor in the distance, and he finally got the idea and called the dog.

Arriving at the Super 8 in Lumberton, we were greeted by Jack who was more careful in navigating and thus finished with no bonus miles. Tony had plenty of food to pick from in his control room, and I thank him for the work in putting on the rides this weekend.