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I've Got Something to Say
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| Ride Stats |
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Time: 09:56:38
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Distance:
164.55 miles
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Max Speed:
27.50 mph
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Avg Speed:
16.50 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: Flat
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Bike: Fuji Newest Road
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| Club: Commuter Cycling Century |
| Weather Conditions: |
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Breakfast was chilly, but not as cold, on the parking lot this morning. The outside temperature was around 60 degrees (compared to 33-35 the previous few mornings), so the plan was just to wear cycling shorts & a short sleeve jersey – no tights, no second pair of socks and no jacket needed to start the day! The other good thing about starting out this morning, is that the wind was pretty much at our back, so most groups were easily cruising down the flat roads around 20-25 mph. If the wind would be this kind to us all day, then the day would be done in about eight hours on the bike (about 9.5 – 10 hours with breaks/lunch). Well that wasn’t the case.
Most everyone got to the lunch stop (mile 86) in about 4 hours – keeping the 20 mph pace. But as we left Holly, CO, our route called for us to head south on highway 30, and that was OK, because the wind was coming from the west, so we just had to deal with a crossing wind. Our pace was a steady 15-17 mph. Then by time we hit the next rest stop, at mile 103, the wind shifted to be more from the southwest – some what of a head wind – knocking our pace down to 11-12 mph, and eventually down to 9-10 mph, especially on the few small climbs we had. We were to continue south for another 20 miles, and now the temperature was probably above 90 degrees and the air was dry; it was a good thing I had my Camelpack (2 liters of water) and my two water bottles (1 liter each of Gatorade) on my bike. I don’t think I was this hot or thirsty while we were cycling through the Imperial Valley in CA, and the desert of AZ.
When we reached the turning point, finally start heading east, there was a much needed rest stop at mile 121. Heading out from the stop was some relief, as the wind was now crossing from behind our right side – a slight cross wind with a hint of a tail wind – so our pace picked up to about 14-15 mph. We soon crossed into KS – I didn’t realize that we hit KS that early until just now reviewing the queue sheet, I didn’t see any "Welcome" sign and I knew we were in KS when we hit Johnson City, KS at mile 142. Not long after crossing into KS, the road had a slight bend to the left, thus allowing the wind to be more of a tailwind and our pace to move up to 17-18 mph. But that only lasted a couple miles, before the road curved back to the right and the wind was crossing from behind, again.
At mile 139, we finally reached the last rest stop. I contemplated riding the SAG van from there to the hotel, allowing my body to start resting and recover for tomorrows 150 miles, but I thought if the rest of the group (Anne, Anne Marie & Dan) could stagger through the last 24 miles, then I would press on with them. We made it to the hotel at 7:30 p.m. CDT. The support crew had already taken our luggage to our rooms – normally we have take it and our bikes to our rooms on our own, and we were informed that our hotel staff had prepared a buffet dinner, so there would not be any long wait for food, like has happened at other stops along the tour (some restaurants in the towns we’ve been to are not ready to handle an influx of 60 patrons). The dinner included a beef stroganoff, mashed potatoes, cantaloupe, cookies & ice cream.
For the record, this is only the second time I have had ice cream since I left St Louis 14 days ago – that is almost sacrilegious for a PAC Tour event. Dairy Queen locations are often noted on the route sheets. Last night after eating our Subway sandwiches, Harold & I walked on over to McDonalds and he got an ice cream cone & I got a chocolate shake. I am going to work a little harder at my ice cream-to-miles ratio on the rest of this trip. In case you are concerned with my waistline, I have lost at least 8 pounds since leaving St Louis.
The scenery of today’s ride was rather boring – I thought – that is the primary reason the are very few pictures. The second reason for lack of pictures is its hard (and bad etiquette) to take them when in a pace line among other cyclist, except when you are in the back of the line where if something happens (i.e. you do something erratic or unexpected) you don’t take other cyclist out . The most exciting thing I saw today was a spider (looked like a tarantula) about the size of the palm of your hand, walking across the road. It was around the shoulder line (white paint stripe) as about 8 of us cyclist rambled by – heading for the field on our right. No body ran over it. I would have like to had a picture of it, but the camera was not turned on and I wasn’t going to stop and loose the group. I think this happened not long after the lunch stop. Then a little while down the road my rear tire was loosing air, again. Flat #5 for me – the record on a cross country PAC Tour is 18, and I don’t care to claim that title.
One hundred and sixty plus miles is a long way. I looked at my cycling log a little while ago, and I had not done anything over 110 miles prior to this trip, so I am glad I didn’t SAG the last 24 miles and can claim this accomplishment. Now tomorrow will be a recovery day – taking it easy, and only doing 150 miles, and best of all we won’t loose an hour like we did today when we crossed from mountain to central time. Yes, today was a long day, but for the PAC Tour participants, it was only 23 hours.
Got on the bike starting at 6:50 A.M. MDT
Got off the bike at the hotel in Ulysses at 7:30 P.M. CDT (6:30 MDT)
Total travel time: 11 hours 40 minutes
Distance traveled: 164.55 miles
Amount of climbing: 1050 feet
Actual time on the bike 9 hours 56 minutes and 38 second
Average speed (on bike): 16.5 mph (was 19.0 at lunch – mile 86)
Max speed attained: 27.5 mph (no big, long down hills today)
Total Time on the bike: 76 hours 25 minutes 3 seconds
Total distance traveled on the bike: 1,178.4 miles
Total overall average speed: TBD – have not setup calculation, yet.
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