Day 1 -- La Ceiba to Tela

59 miles

Breakfast was served around 6:00am and the goal was to start at 7:00.  The rain had mostly stopped.  Just a bit of mist now and then.  I kept vacillating between wearing my jacket or not.  I didn’t need it so much for the rain protection as for the visibility factor.  Finally, I decided on “no jacket”.  It would turn out to be a good decision.

Ready to start the day -- and the week!

After prayer, wheels rolled pretty much right at 7:00am.  Each day we would start out riding together as a group for a predetermined distance, and then the race portion would start – for those who were racing. I was not!

We rode as one large group for 10 miles, at an easy pace of 10mph.  It was a time to chat with friends, meet new people, and just generally enjoy the morning.  After 10 miles we stopped and the racers, which, I think, were about one-half of the entire group, moved to the front of the group to begin their race.  Each of the 5 categories of racers had their own start.  Then it was time for the rest of us to get underway.

Once the word was given for us to start, I just pretty much took off and didn’t look back.  This was the first time for me to really test the training I had done in Florida.  I felt great and was really able to push out some good speed.  The small hills were no problem for me and I even passed some people on them.  Yeah, that felt good.  There’s one very long hill between Ceiba and Tela, and that was the only time all day that I needed to drop into my small chainring.  I felt great.  

Before long, I crossed the finish line in Tela, where we waited for the rest of the group to arrive.  More than a few riders from last year told me that they could see I had improved quite a bit.  When everyone was in, we rode the final two miles together as a group again.  At 10mph.  I was amazed that even with the initial 10 miles and the final two miles at 10mph, I still managed to average 13.9mph for the 59 miles.

We were staying in the Sherwood Hotel again, the same as last year.  After parking our bikes, we all made the 4-story climb to the top floor for lunch.  Yes, there were groans with all that climbing.

The hotel wasn’t quite prepared for all of us to receive our rooms, so many of us were given room assignments to still-dirty rooms, including mine.  But, we had access to the shower, and that’s all that mattered.  I had just gotten into the shower when I heard Kurt out in the hall, telling people that we were leaving for the presentation in the park in two minutes.  I knew I wasn’t going to make it.  So I continued on with my shower and even washed out my riding clothes from the day.

The view from my room

Once clean and refreshed, I grabbed my Kindle and a little money.  I was headed for the tables down at the beach.  I ordered something to drink and read and relaxed.  It wasn’t long before people started coming back to the hotel from the presentation.  The beach became the place to be: some swam, others walked along the shore, a soccer game started, etc.  It was an exclamation point to a great day of riding.

Time to relax with my Kindle and a cold drink