Hey look, another blog entry on biking! That's just crazy! (Or repetitive.) Anyway, this past weekend was the 1st Annual Tour de BBQ presented by the LiveStrong Army of Kansas City. It was a 15 or 60 mile charity ride for local LiveStrong charities including the Cancer Center at KU Med. It began and ended at the American Royal Complex in the West Bottoms which was also hosting the American Royal BBQ Contest which may be the premier BBQ contest on the planet.
Keeping with the theme of the ride, the 60 mile route went past at least 15 different BBQ joints around the metro area, with rest stops at five of them (BB's Lawnside, Jack Stack in Martin City, Haywards, Oklahoma Joes (the original on 47th and Mission) and Woodyard on Merriam Lane) where we could load up on as much 'Que and fixin's at each as we wanted. Then at the end there was a BBQ lunch, pizza from Spin! (the coolest pizza place in the area) and tasty beverages courtesy of our friends at the Boulevard Brewery. All for the low entry fee of $48 which also got you a t-shirt, water bottle, and a recyclable shopping bag. The route made a big loop through parts of both Missouri and Kansas. The route was well marked, but was on regular roads, so we had to stop at all the stop signs and stop lights.
Saturday morning rolled around and the temperatures were hovering in the low 40's. Time to dig out the fall riding gear! I got all layered up, threw the bike and all the gear in the truck and left to get to the venue in time for the 8 AM start. They announced just before the ride began that there were 450 riders signed up and that they had raised over $45,000.
Keeping with the theme of the ride, the 60 mile route went past at least 15 different BBQ joints around the metro area, with rest stops at five of them (BB's Lawnside, Jack Stack in Martin City, Haywards, Oklahoma Joes (the original on 47th and Mission) and Woodyard on Merriam Lane) where we could load up on as much 'Que and fixin's at each as we wanted. Then at the end there was a BBQ lunch, pizza from Spin! (the coolest pizza place in the area) and tasty beverages courtesy of our friends at the Boulevard Brewery. All for the low entry fee of $48 which also got you a t-shirt, water bottle, and a recyclable shopping bag. The route made a big loop through parts of both Missouri and Kansas. The route was well marked, but was on regular roads, so we had to stop at all the stop signs and stop lights.
Saturday morning rolled around and the temperatures were hovering in the low 40's. Time to dig out the fall riding gear! I got all layered up, threw the bike and all the gear in the truck and left to get to the venue in time for the 8 AM start. They announced just before the ride began that there were 450 riders signed up and that they had raised over $45,000.
As I said, the temperatures were in the low 40's at the beginning of the ride. I don't think it got past 50 by the time I finished. Oh yeah, it was also overcast and windy. And the wind was coming from the east-northeast so it was a headwind for the majority of the last half of the ride (which was also the hilly portion of the ride).On big charity group rides like this, you try and find a group of people that have roughly the same abilities as you do, so you can share the workload of being in the front. I found a group that was pretty good at first, but after the second rest stop at around the 20 mile mark, I think a lot of the riders hit their limit, so I found myself at the front of the group for a good chunk of the remainder of the ride. I'm glad I just took a sample sized portion of BBQ at each stop instead of filling up a plate.
I kept the camera in the jersey pocket for most of the ride, but dug it out at the last rest stop which was Woodyard BBQ. They had ribs, chicken, beans, and a guy on acoustic guitar.
Woodyard uses hand painted signboards to advertise what their special of the day is. It made a pretty cool background to take a couple of pictures. 
And just a shot of my Madone.
After 3-1/2 hours of riding (which wasn't too bad considering all the lost momentum from stop signs, stop lights and rest stops) I made it back to Hale Arena at the American Royal Complex where the BBQ and pizza lunch and more importantly the beer was awiting me at the finish. The girls came out to greet me at the finish and to chow down on some lunch. Libby and Lori felt like dancing...
And Sara felt like posing...
Meanwhile, I was too tired to do either. 
Overall, it was a fun morning, even with the coolish weather. BBQ, beer, bike riding, the girls, and raising money for charity. Good stuff.
