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I've Got Something to Say
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| Ride Stats |
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Time: 05:19:14
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Distance:
73.62 miles
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Max Speed:
27.80 mph
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Avg Speed:
13.80 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: Hills
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Bike: Fuji Newest Road
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| Club: Commuter Cycling Century |
| Weather Conditions: |
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The weather this morning at breakfast was much like yesterday – temperature was around 60 degrees. The topic of discussion, though, was the wind direction and how it would affect our effort to get from Ulysses to Pratt. The forecast said the wind would be 20-25 mph from the north. Our route for the day was pretty much due east. So the minimally we would be fighting a cross wind, blowing from our left to right. I say fighting because the we the wind would try and push us to the side of the road, and we would then counter with a steering adjustment to the left – towards the traffic lanes, which could be hazardous in itself – thus causing us to not only working on our pedaling to continue any momentum, but also make continuous steering adjustment which adds fatigue to the arms and upper body.
I left the hotel parking lot hoping to catch on the wheel (draft) with who ever would roll past me – but, as I expected, I was not able to keep the necessary speed to hang with a couple small groups that rolled by me, so I just plodded along. Finally, about seven or eight miles down the road, as I was passing another cyclist, Don decided he would try and keep on my wheel, and after about a mile or so, he offered to take the lead and let me draft off him and rest a little. We continued to alternate every mile and eventually picked up a third cyclist (Everett) thus allowing us to draft & rest for two miles before taking a turn to lead the pack. Upon reaching the second rest stop at mile 45, I felt like my legs were still exhausted from yesterday’s long miles, and my shoulders & back were fatigued, so I decided to ride the SAG vehicle all the way to the lunch stop (mile 92). My hope, then, would be to ride the rest of the day into the hotel, and that would give me just over one hundred miles for the day. Well, upon reaching the fifth rest stop (mile 120), I know I could not make it the rest of the way by myself, physically as well as the fact that the sun would set in just over two hours and I would make it to the hotel before that if I could managed 15 mph – that wouldn’t happen without help from other riders, and even then I didn’t feel like I could maintain that pace for 2+ hours. So, I hung around the last rest stop to ride one of the SAG vehicles to the hotel. By time the lunch van had made its way to the stop, they had a van full of bikes on their rack & in the trailer, and was full of riders (and crew) that had called it a day. It was a long day, that was mentally draining, as well as physically challenging no matter how many or how few miles were ridden.
Besides the fact that the Kansas terrain was the same today as what I saw yesterday, it was next to impossible to take any pictures from the bike. So, I took a clue from one of the group readers and focused on taking more pictures of the riders – which sitting around a couple rest stops allowed me to do, and allowed me to get some pictures of riders I don’t normally see, and a few that I don’t know their name.
During what little riding I did do today, I made one observation, as received another observation from April as we rode between the lunch stop and rest stop #5. My observation came from a couple different pastures with a handful of cows grazing near the road. As we rolled by, a cow or two would lift their head and watch us –as if we were a parade going down the street. And then a couple more cows would take notice of us, and then a couple more, etc. This happened more than once – they would just be standing there, pausing from their grazing, watching us go by. I had mentioned this to a couple other cyclist and they would bring up the Far Side comic that would show cows standing on their hind legs, chatting with each other at the fence, then when the noticed a car or other sign of human being, they would drop to all fours and act like cows.
Observation #2: as April & I were navigating one of the few ‘turns’ (this one was actually a merge between Rt 400 onto Rt 54 east – a sprawled out interchange – there was a car that was coming off of 54 west, navigating its course, that honked for us and waved. Nice jester, but they were several hundred yards away – it’s not like we were on a two lane road and they were heading in the opposite direction (that does happen several times a day, and is appreciated, too). April suggested that the driver was tired of the scenery like we were, and was happy to see and communicate with another human being.
I don’t know that I have ever been to KS before – if I have it was a one day trip with the college football team, and that would have taken me less than an hour into KS from the state of Missouri. I have heard several people report their take on driving a car across KS, and the consensus is "boring." Now slow down, and spread it out over three plus days, and add a half day preview going through eastern Colorado (just because you’re in CO, doesn’t mean you are in the Rockies). Now slow down the bike riding with a hindering, strong wind – that’s what today was like for the group. Several riders successfully completed the scheduled 150 miles, but many of us were not as mentally and physically up to the challenge. I’d like to think that I exemplified the Team Turtle motto - "Ride slow. Ride Smart." – with my approach to today’s riding. Riding slow was not an option today – even some of the stronger riders (and tandems) struggled to get speeds over 15 mph – down hill. Riding smart, does leave one to interpret when to and when not to ride – and I chose not to ride some of today, in order to be better up to the challenge to ride tomorrow. And speaking of tomorrow – the forecast is for the wind to be more directly out of the east and a 40% chance of rain, on our way to Winfield. And that is only 120 miles from here!
Got on the bike starting at 7:40 A.M. CDT
Got off the bike at the hotel in Pratt at 5:45 P.M. CDT (via SAG van from last rest stop)
Total travel time: 9 hours 55 minutes
Distance traveled: 73.62 miles (SAG’d from rest stop #2 to #4, then again from rest stop #5 to hotel)
Amount of climbing: 200 feet, but the 20-25 mph wind from the north made the whole day seem uphill.
Actual time on the bike 5 hours 19 minutes and 14 second
Average speed (on bike): 13.8 mph (because of the wind)
Max speed attained: 27.8 mph (no big, long down hills today)
Total Time on the bike: 81 hours 44 minutes 17 seconds
Total distance traveled on the bike: 1,252.02 miles
Total overall average speed: TBD – have not setup calculation, yet.
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