I have ridden dozens and dozens of t-shirt rides in the last two years and with the bar being set so high by the Ready2Roll MS150 training series with the ConocoPhillips team, it is really kind of hard to impress me…not that I am a bike snob or anything…and then there is the Gran Fondoodle on the other end…WELL…let me tell you about why I wished this was my tenth Tour Lafitte and not my first…
You would think for $25 for a charity ride for the Special Olympics that your expectations might be somewhere in the middle. First, let me just say that if you haven’t done this ride, you should – period. It had the basic elements of a good ride, safety support by law enforcement and volunteer SAG, a well organized set of volunteers with clear directions maps and an agenda. Every rest stop was well organized and stocked (and when I say stocked – I mean everything including an air pump – go figure!) – all this presented by happy volunteers who were truly appreciative of our participation and friendly in a typical Southwest Louisiana hospitable way. One thing that made this ride even more remarkable was the fact that many of the extraordinary young Olympians that we were helping to support were at the rest stops and so friendly and inquisitive…many of them were wearing the medals that they had earned and were eager to tell you about their athletic accomplishments, if you asked!
The Tour Lafitte happens in Lake Charles during a festival called Contraband Days – a twelve day pirate themed festival that has been happening in Lake Charles for over 50 years. This festival, while this event is just one day and one part of it, is notable because
of how they started the ride. In one of the pictures in the gallery (not the one above) of the start of the ride, you will see a Coca Cola
parade float to the left; on that float is the announcer for the ride and the Mayor of Lake Charles (dressed in a French Pirate attire) who started the ride by actually firing a cannon – for the record, I am going to suggest this method to Steve at ConcoPhillips and see if he thinks it might be a good idea…ok, so I’m not going to do that.
The participation was not what you might expect of an MS training ride in TX, but there were probably 500 riders…and all pretty
friendly…not as many “on your left” or “debris!” callouts as I might like (also not many pace lines), but for the most part it was a pretty safe ride on a well thought out set of courses that were mostly flat – probably not 800ft of total elevation (and that was probably overpasses).
It was a cool start of the morning, but we were all prepared with cold gear if we needed it, but I think just about every either opted to tough it out or just brought really light stuff to get through the cool and damp of the morning – it was probably close to 50 degrees but it was warming up pretty fast and it was going to be warm and sunny the whole day – I think I was more concerned about how fast the wind was going to blow –
shallow wind until 9am then 10mph going to 18 at 1pm – so a quick 62 miles was the best plan – but you know, there were homemade chocolate chip cookies and brownies at EVERY rest stop -so I kind of felt obligated to stop…I mean, I wouldn’t want a volunteer to
feel like the did all that work for nothing; and for the record, I made sure they felt appreciated. The first hour was pretty fast and we had a good pace going from the beginning. We started at the back of the group – which is why we missed Ray – he started in the front of the group and he was doing a shorter route – so we ended up missing him altogether.
From the time we got a line going and started passing riders – I mean right from the start – from the back of the line I kept hearing people mutter “Look at those TOUGH girls…look at those tough girls!”…Michelle, Lori and Kip were pacing and I was at the back of the line and for atleast the first mile – that is all I heard…so when we made our first rest stop, I had to have them pose for the part, and as you can imagine they objected…NOT! Anyway, we met a very nice young girl who had several medals around her neck and wanted to have me take her picture with the “tough” girls! I am sad to say that the picture was on the young lady’s camera, so I don’t have a copy – but this young lady was an Olympiad and had won several medals…
Did you know that the “tough” girls even tried to stop a train…tried, mind you!
The route that we followed was a clockwise loop north from Lake Charles above I-10 and then East out to Iowa and South and back around West and up into Lake Charles. It was a very pleasant, low traffic route that passed some very nice rural scenery – we did get to pass a beautiful horse stable and some rice fields that you can see in the gallery.
Every rest stop had port ‘o cans provided by Kjon…and as you can imagine, I really liked the color scheme, but it a little significance so we felt compelled to snap a photo…and yes, I used both of them.
Overall, the temps were great and it was really a nice ride – the 62 mile route was not crowded at all – heck, there was nothing congested or crowded about any of it. And it was truly remarkable to see so many people stay after the ride and participate in the after ride event (it wasn’t the free gumbo this year)…ok, so they were giving away two Specialized bikes (nice ones – a Allez elite and a fixie) and tons and tons of stuff…they had a silent auction of an original oil painting of a cyclist that got up to over $750 (yes I bid and no I didn’t win – whew!) but each rider got their name in the raffle box – but before any of the raffling began they had contests…ugliest bike…coolest helmet…best biker tan
(men/women)…best legs (men/women) and every winner got a medal with the category on it and some free stuff. I mean they gave away stuff for two hours. We were all kind of hoping that Michelle would win the fluorescent green fixie for her hubby – but no luck there…hey, did I mention that they still had homemade brownies and chocolate chip cookies at the finish too? See, if you didn’t win
anything you still ended up a a winner…and in my case I was a double winner – I got a blinkie!!!…and I got a gift certificate to a local restaurant, which I gave to Lilly and Alfonse – our extraordinary hosts for this weekend – I can even begin to say enough about our hosts – what a wonderful weekend!
In the end, this was such an extraordinary event, I almost didn’t want to pass the word in fear that more and more people will come and it will get overcrowded and sour things (no pun intended for those who tried the gumbo) – but this was one of those rides (like Spindletop) that you just have to come and experience to fully understand how terrific it really is. There is no question that I will continue to come and participate in this event – from the well thought out organization of the overall event, to the sincere beneficiaries of the charity (and their parents) who spoke to us casually during the ride and formally at the after ride event – this is a charity ride to have on your calendar every year!…did I mention homemade cookies and brownies at EVERY rest stop?
2013 Tour Lafitte 23 - Lake Charles Louisiana
