On Sunday, June 8th, the 2008 Tour de Braz bicycle event in Alvin, Texas was held. This ride goes through Brazoria County which is extremely flat and this normally makes for a good, fast ride. Of course since it is coastal Texas it also means there will be some wind to contend with at some point in the ride.

I had originally intended to ride the 100 mile route in an attempt to continue training for the Hotter’N Hell 100. At about 45 miles in I discovered I was not yet used to my new bike seat and the wicked south wind we rode into for almost 20 miles changed my mind. I wound up taking the turn to follow the 67 mile route instead when it was time. It turned out to be a good choice in the end as I was wasted by the end of the ride.

The ride had great rest stops with good drinks and snacks, and several even had some ice cold towels to help cool us down. It was a typical June day for south Texas so we sure did need it. One of the rest stops even had Pickle Juice Sport which is awesome on a hot day.

Not everything was rosy on the ride, though. There was a train derailment that caused a lot of grief for most of the routes (although surprisingly not for the 67 mile). The 67 and 100 mile routes were taken onto state highway 288 which is a terrible road to safely ride a bicycle on. The shoulder is wide but the ride is a heavy truck thoroughfare with plenty of on-ramp traffic to watch out for. I’d really rather never repeat that experience again.