Tour
de Meers - Meers, OK
May 2007
The Tour de Meers is probably the best kept secret of all the t-shirt rides in Oklahoma and North Texas. It is located in Meers, Oklahoma less than 30 minutes northwest of Lawton. It is a very well organized event with lots of helpful friendly volunteers and a decent breakfast at the staging area. It has challenging routes with beautiful scenery in and around the Wichita Mountains, lots of wildlife, clean air, surprisingly good roads except for the first few miles of the eastbound leg, excellent rest stops and volunteers, not much vehicular traffic, good SAG support, and a challenging finish with one of the best downhills on any ride. It's always an exhilarating experience everytime I do this ride; it has a rare magic quality about it that makes for a memorable cycling experience. After the ride you can get some good food at the Meers General Store or at the Riverside Cafe in Medicine Park. I drove from Arlington, Texas and this ride was well worth the drive, just make sure you practice your paceline skills to help you slice through the headwind like Kung-Fu-On-Rice-Paper. Another fantastic job by the organizers, volunteers, and sponsors - way to go! I'll be back again next year.
May
2005
Even though it's a little off the beaten path for most Texicans, this is still one of my top three all-time favorite rides - and I've done well over 100 organized rides from Austin to Oklahoma City. The Tour de Meers is located in the historic town of Meers Oklahoma and is just down the road from Medicine Park, a reputed out-of-the way vacation community established by the Chicago Mob of the 1920's and 30's. Let me say one thing up front - this is somewhat of a minimally supported ride; no fancy-shmancy t-shirt, an unpaved (but freshly mowed) parking lot, no long-winded speech at the start, no road marshals, minimal signage, not much ice at the rest stops, and just a painted line scrawled on the road to mark the finish. But, this ride is a MUST ride for all of the important reasons, and because it has a magical quality to it. The volunteers are exceptionally friendly & enthusiastic, they don't raise
a lot of money from this ride but they do a GREAT job and they know their stuff. The tech support and the sag support was also quite good, although I don't remember seeing anybody sagging. We did the 100k route and the only rest stop we did was at mile 47; it had the usual assortment of goodies including cold orange juice! The scenery is beautiful due to it's location in the rugged and unspoiled Wichita Mountains. We saw buffalo, elk, longhorn cattle, geese, ducks, a Prairie Dog town, lots of flowers, and the largest dandelions you can imagine. This is a challenging rectangular course with plenty of climbing, fast downhills, a long Northbound flat for hammering, and an Eastbound drag that just goes and goes and goes. The road surface was clean, free of gravel, and in relatively good shape. The vehicular traffic was almost non-existent, but what little traffic we encountered was courteous and friendly. This is one of those rare rides that you will never forget because of the scenery, the people, the clean air, and the peace and quiet you experience out in the middle of nowhere. Oh yeah, the course is one of the very few that will challenge you and give you an accurate assessment of your ability to climb, to sprint, to hammer, and to ride in a fast paceline. Rent a room in Lawton or Medicine Park next year and give this ride a shot, you won't regret it one bit.
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