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I've Got Something to Say
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| Ride Stats |
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Time: 04:58:28
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Distance:
69.05 miles
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Max Speed:
31.30 mph
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Avg Speed:
13.80 mph
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Altitude Gain:
0 ft
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Route:
Tour of Door County Day 4
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Weight:
0
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Category: general: touring -
group
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Terrain: Road: Hills
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Bike: Fuji Roubaix RC Road
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Club: None |
| Weather Conditions: mid-50's to low-60's
Wind: S15
Rain off & on from Sturgeon Bay to past Egg Harbor |
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Today’s schedule was a little topsy-turvy, but it turned out to be kind of better that way. Normally, its breakfast, then take the bikes out to the prep area to air up tires & fill water bottles, followed by taking luggage out to be loaded into the trailer before hitting the road. Today, due to limited space in the hotel’s breakfast area, the tour crew decided to have pay for breakfast at a couple local diners. In order for that to work the schedule called for bikes at 6:45 and luggage at 7:00, and hit the road to one of two designated diners in town, one .4 miles away and the other .9, then continue through town on today’s prescribed route.
Last night before shutting down for the night, I checked weather.com’s forecast for Sturgeon Bay, WI and I am pretty certain it stated overnight temp down to 56/57, with Wed’s temp expected to climb to low/mid-60’s and zero percent chance of rain. I’d say I’d swear to that, but I don’t swear. Needless to say it was a bit of a surprise (and disappointing) to see the parking lot wet when we woke up this morning and looked out the window. The skies were still grey and looked threatening. TV morning news reports was showing more rain ready to move into the area, dropping rain off & on throughout the morning before clearing into the afternoon.
We followed the schedule and rolled to breakfast, I stopped at the first diner choice, along with about half the group. We ordered and ate breakfast as the heavy rain moved into the area; we even waited around an extra half-hour for the rain to move out, but finally got back out on the road in a steady rain. We would roll into and out of the rain for most of the morning. At one point I felt like I was drying out, only to be sprinkled on again, while there were partial blue skies overhead – which was about the end of the rain for the day, and we still had about 35 miles to go.
Not long after that last rain I had to unzip the rain jacket as to not over heat, then was able to leave it in the trailer at the second rest stop (mile 46) , making the last 20+ miles of the day a little more enjoyable. The wind throughout the day was very steady, very stiff, out of the south at around 15 mph – it was only a headwind for a few short stints where we needed to head south.
We left Sturgeon Bay heading north along the Green Bay side, then climbed an 8-14% grade for about a quarter mile to start our trek east across the peninsula to roll through Whitefish Bay and on up to Jacksonport before heading west again to get to Egg Harbor on the Green Bay side. Just before getting to Egg Harbor there is a gnarly descent that ends with a blind curve and a fork in the road at the bottom, and it was made even gnarlier by the wet roads from the day’s rains – thankfully there are no incidents to report. A few miles later there was another climb (markings on the road for another ride in the area indicated ‘shift down’ just before a turn that was followed by immediate climbing). Baileys Harbor, on the lake side, was where the second rest stop was situated. Then a few miles on up the road was a little ‘detour’ to check out Cana Island Lighthouse (pictures). While feeling sluggish most of the day, from this point to our finish in Ellison Bay rolled by pretty fast as I was able to make use of the predominate tailwind and mostly descending roads.
Tomorrow will seem like a really long day if these winds continue to blow out of the south. While we do a brief 12 mile loop to reach the northern most tip of the peninsula, most of the day we will be going south to tomorrow’s destination of Algoma. Maybe skipping the 12-mile loop will be in order – why go north to come south into the wind, and go right past tonight’s hotel on our way to tomorrow night’s? We will have to see which way the wind blows.
Picture summary: 1) Looking out over the south side of Sturgeon Bay when leaving from the breakfast diner. 2) Heading down the road toward the lake (at the end of the road, but we actually turn left just before the row of trees to the left). 3) The cove by Cana Island light house. 4) The light house barely stands above the trees (thought I had zoomed in for a better shot). 5) A tire swing alongside the road – hear a couple cyclist actually stopped and tried it out. 6) Susan & Veronica waiting for a couple other shoppers inside the Silly Goose General Store.
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