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I've Got Something to Say
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| Ride Stats |
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Time: 07:41:06
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Distance:
102.85 miles
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Max Speed:
38.90 mph
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Avg Speed:
13.30 mph
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Route:
PAC Tour Central Transcontinental
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Weight:
0
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Category: training: general -
solo
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Terrain: Road: Steep
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Bike: Fuji Newest Road
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| Club: Commuter Cycling Century |
| Weather Conditions: |
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Today was billed as the toughest day so far, and one the most difficult of the whole tour. At a distance of 116 miles, it is not quite as long as day one, but with 8000 feet of climbing, it is the most climbing we will do in one day – including our time in Colorado. My philosophy to handle these long climbing days is two pronged. First, during long strenuous climbs I have followed the mind set of The Little Engine That Could, and, after finding a gear I can establish a good cadence up a hill, I would repeat to myself, "I think I can. I think I can." with each stroke of the pedals. Now lately, for a second prong, I have taken a hint from Dory in the animation movie Finding Nemo. As Dory & Marlon were on their excursion to find Nemo, Dory breaks out into a little ditty, singing "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. …" I take the liberty to augment the lyrics to be more applicable to my task at hand, and sing to myself, "Just keep spinning. Just keep spinning."
Going up three major climbs today required a lot, and I mean a lot, of spinning. The climbs were 4-7 miles in length and each one gained over 2000 feet of elevation. In my lowest gears, I would do about 6-7 mph up the ascents. There were multiple payoffs for completing these climbs. One, at the top of the third ascent, was the last rest stop of the day. Two, there are some spectacular views as you work your way up the side of the mountains. Third, and most important, is the free ride down the other side – with some more spectacular views. The descents today were more of a technical challenge, than Sunday’s descents. Today’s descents were filled with some sweeping and some tight curves. There were signs on these curves telling motorist speed limits of 20 and 15 mph on these curves. With very little traffic I would do 25-30 on the 20 mph curves, and around 20 on the 15 mph curves. Figuring I was going faster than most cars would on the curves, I took the liberty to take up the whole lane, which allowed me a little more lead-way in maneuvering these curves. These descents would be an excellent video if I had a camera mounted on the handle bars!
An interesting place about half way down the third descent was the down of Jerome – quit literally built in the middle of the hillside. Riding through it reminded me of pictures of like a Swiss village – not so much the architecture of the buildings, but just the location and situation of the town. Sorry, I didn’t stop there for pictures.
The low-light of the day came after I completed the last descent and was making my way through the town of Cottonwood, I noticed the bike was feeling a little funny and it turned out my front tire was loosing air. Well, I still had about an hour of riding to do to get to the hotel Sedona, and then I realized I did not pack a spare tube after having flats on Tuesday (OK, I’d use my patch kit and make due with the tube I had), but then as I had removed the tire and was beginning to investigate what caused the tire to loose air, the last SAG vehicle was coming through, so I flagged them down and rode it into the hotel. That was probably a good thing, not only for how late it was getting, but also, I’m not sure I would have found the tiny thorn in my tire that caused the tube to slowly loose its air. The way I did find it, after I got to the hotel, was to use some soapy what from one of the bike-wash buckets and look for bubbles after refilling the tube with air. Found the hole in the tube, then translated where that section of tube would be located inside the tire – and I spotted a piece of foreign matter, which turned out to be the tiny thorn – and I had to use a pair of needle-nose pliers (which I don’t carry with me) to get it out. Now a new tube is in and ready for tomorrow!
Got on the bike starting at 6:40 A.M. – much better
Got to the hotel in Sedona at 6:15 P.M.
Total travel time: 11 hours 35 minutes
Distance traveled: 102.85 miles of the 121
Amount of climbing: 9240 ft (based on Howard’s computer – a bit more than the 8000 advertised)
Actual time on the bike 7 hours 41 minutes and 6 seconds
Average speed (on bike): 13.3 mph
Max speed attained: 38.9 mph
Two more references to Finding Nemo: First, in a conversation with Jacque (my wife) a couple weeks ago, centered on people naming their bikes, she suggested I name my bike Dory, because like Dory says it’s a natural blue. Secondly, before the first rest stop today, somewhere around Congress, AZ, one of the cross streets was Escapee. I spotted that and quoted Dory, from when she & Marlon were looking to get out of the submarine, "Escape (say S cop A – French sounding). That’s spelled just like escape!"
This is not getting sent (nor the pictures uploaded) because it is now 10:00 and my body needs sleep.
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