First I’d like to recognize the family owned and run motel we stayed in last night. It was first class with large rooms, flat screen TV’s, indoor pool, very large lawn with chairs and picnic tables. When we arrived the had very large cookies and very cold lemonade for us.
Today’s ride was a repeat of yesterday’s – tailwind for the first half and headwind for the second half. My lunch was even the same, chicken salad sandwich and Starbucks espresso from the cooler of a truck stop. On the middle part of today’s ride – 20 miles into the wind with continuous, long but not very high hills, I was dragging. My hands hurt, my butt hurt and probably everything else hurt to some extent. I couldn’t get comfortable on the bike; probably changed positions every 30 seconds. But after the second SAG, after lunch and the espresso, I felt surprisingly good for the last 25 miles – even though the headwind continued and the two biggest climbs of the day were in this segment. And we were rewarded at the end with a 2 mile, 6% downhill into town. I rode mostly be myself today, although Jim drafted me most of the segment where I was hurting. And, like yesterday, I was at the motel by 2:30. (To be honest, there were at least 20 of us at the DQ at 2:15.)
As we were leaving Wyoming, the scenery got a little better and it continued to improve into South Dakota.
I forgot to mention the changes with segment 3 which began yesterday. We lost two riders, Patricia (with the Rivendale) and Maureen (who pulled down my shorts) completed their segment(s). We picked up 4 new riders and a new ABB staff member. And, most notably, Nick who separated his shoulder and left the ride last week is back.
At the lunch stop today the cashier told us of “the old road” into town, she said it was flatter than the main road and it was paved. It was tempting, but then I remembered David Lamb’s Road Lesson Number 1 from Over The Hills:
What people tell bicyclists about road conditions and what lies ahead is usually wrong. If they say the road is smooth and downhill all the way to the next town, it's probably rough and a damn rough climb. --- The problem is that motorists perceive their surroundings in an entirely different manner than cyclists. Or more to the point, they don't perceive them at all.
Yesterday I mentioned my bike is performing flawlessly. I can’t say that about the electronics, but I’ll save that story for another day.
Day 21, 93 miles, 2,050 feet climbed, 1,574 miles so far
29 day remaining, 2,115 miles remaining
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