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I've Got Something to Say
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| Ride Stats |
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Time: 06:10:15
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Distance:
86.55 miles
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Max Speed:
44.20 mph
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Avg Speed:
14.00 mph
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Altitude Gain:
0 ft
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Route:
WT - Mineral Point to Viroqua
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Weight:
0
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Category: training: general -
solo
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Terrain: Road: Rolling
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Bike: Fuji Newest Road
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Club: None |
| Weather Conditions: sunny; partly cloudy
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Yesterday during breakfast, someone had mentioned how these tours are like the movie Ground Hog Day. Each day you wake up, eat breakfast, prepare for the day¡¦s ride, ride, stop and eat, ride, stop for the day, clean up, eat dinner, go to bed, so you can wake up the next morning and do it all over again. Good thing this tour is set for only six days…
Looking at today's the cue sheet last night, on the surface it looked very similar to Sunday's, ride for 87 miles, and expect to climb 4000 feet - almost the same as the 92 miles & 4000 feet on Sunday. However, the actual terrain of today's ride contrasts greatly to Sunday's. Today, there was more serious climbing early in the route (big rolling hills the first 10 miles), and the rest of the climbing was spread more evenly through the rest of the ride. So it started with 8-10 mph (sometimes slower) climbs up these hills, followed by quick bursts of 35-40 mph descents down the other side, leading to another uphill climb where the momentum from that down hill dissipated all to fast, leaving me to work up the hill going 8-10 mph. I was concentrating to much on conquering these hills that I didn't bother to try and capture a picture of one of them. Once we were beyond those 10 miles, things evened out and the route was quite pleasant. The rest of the day would be descending into a valley (reaching 40 on one and 44 mph another), riding along the base of the hills with plush green pastures and a creek running through the middle of the valley. A climb out of the valley at the other end would then lead to a descent into the next.
As I was approaching the first rest stop today, in Highland, WI, climbing up a little hill on the edge of town, I was passed by another rider who asked, "Any idea why they call this town Highland?¨ Rim-shot please ! Then 20 miles later as I was leaving the second rest stop, in Blue River, I was thinking about the cue sheet saying I would soon be passing over the Wisconsin River, and I started thinking about all the "state" rivers I've cycled over. Being from St Louis, its easy, and sometimes necessary, to navigate the Missouri River (I've done this using the Page Ext. Bike Trail, as well as the I-370 bridge a couple times) and the Mississippi River (I've done this on the Eads Bridge during its grand re-opening a few years ago, as well as the Chain of Rocks bridge). I've ferried across the Illinois River a few different times - I haven't been far enough north to ride over it on a bridge. During the transcontinental I went over the Colorado River to get from CA to AZ - this was a little disappointing at that juncture; no white cap rapids where I was at, we crossed the Mississippi down at Cape Girardeau, then the next day ferried across the Ohio, and a day or two later rolled over the Tennessee. Well, rolling over the Wisconsin today was a little disappointing, much like that day over the Colorado - it's no Mississippi or Missouri (or even the Ohio)!
The lunch stop today, at mile 72, was at a city park in Reedstown (population 395). Susan (a co-owner of PAC Tour – our ride organizer) was cooking grilled cheese sandwiches. I fell in love with these during the transcontinental. The PAC Tour way of fixing them is with a slice of tomato. Yum yum! Warning: the tomato juices may be very hot – so be careful biting into one. After lunch it was only 15 miles to our hotel in Viroqua, WI (population 4335).
Honestly, though, I woke up this morning dreading having to get on the bike and go through all those miles, and exerting all that effort to get up those hills. But I did get on the bike, telling myself if I will minimally ride to the lunch stop, and if I feel as bad (or worse) then I would just ride the van on into Viroqua. Well, after muddling through those first 10 miles, I felt better rolling through that first valley, and didn’t feel to bad climbing out of it and into the next one. As it turns out, I was feeling pretty darn good as I rolled into lunch. Needless to say, after eating my grilled cheese sandwich, I hopped back on my bike and made way to Viroqua, and finished the day feeling better (physically and mentally) than when I started! That’s not the same result I experienced yesterday!
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