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I've Got Something to Say
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| Ride Stats |
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Time: 03:42:24
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Distance:
55.99 miles
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Max Speed:
24.30 mph
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Avg Speed:
15.10 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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I was looking forward to the challenge of completing today’s 130 miles, with continued windy conditions. The winds today were not as strong as yesterday's, only 5-10 mph and out of the north & northeast, switching to the southeast. My biggest hindrance, though, was the rear tire on my bike. After we (Team Turtle) made our stop at rest stop #1 (mile 34) and were heading down the road to stop #2 (mile 63), but about half way there I noticed my rear tire seemed low on air. I stopped and checked it, and the gauge showed its pressure was about 70 PSI, when it should be around 120. I aired it up some, hoping I could nurse it into the next rest stop and deal with the cause then. After rolling down the road another 5-7 miles, I stopped to air it up again. When I had about 5 more miles before rest stop #2, one of the SAG vans came by, so I flagged them down and had them take me to the rest stop.
Once at the rest stop, I started to investigate why I have been having problems with air staying in my rear tire – why do I repeatedly have slow leaks? I could not find any leaks in the inner tube. Even after some crew members looked at different possibilities, no answer was found. So, I resigned myself to riding the SAG wagon to our hotel in Winfield. Once we arrived, and everything was setup for the cyclist to arrive, I proceeded to remove the tire, put on a new tube, and put on a spare tire I brought with me on the trip. My hope at this point is that there is some strand of wire, a piece of glass, or some other foreign object, that is embedded in that tire and just works its way into the tube over time. One way to find such a nuisance is to fill the tube with air, submerge it under water and look for a stream of air bubbles. My problem the last couple days is that the tubes have received further damage (don’t ask why or how – I don’t want to talk about that). So, changing the tire changes another variable to determining the cause of this headache.
Having said all that, I only took a few pictures today – a couple that didn’t turn out very well – and as I was riding the last few miles I did get in on the bike today, I determined that I was not going to worry about a photo album for today. I’m sorry to disappoint you.
Here is a little story that illustrates what it is like to ride a bike through Kansas. In 1982, Susan Notorangelo – who co-owns and runs PAC Tours, along with her husband Lon – set the record for a woman riding from LA to NY. It took her 11 days and 16 hours. At the celebration ceremony, she was presented with a cake that was decorated to resemble the US. She proceed to cut out the area of the cake that was decorated as Kansas, pulled it out, threw it on the floor and stomped on it with her foot – that is what she thought about riding through KS. On the upside, the people of KS have been very friendly, very friendly. Howard told me over dinner that while he was riding along today and had to stop at railroad crossing he unknowingly dropped a piece of paper with some notes on it. After the train had cleared the intersection, he was ready to clip his feet onto his pedals and start rolling down the road, when a man from a near by vehicle had noticed that Howard had dropped the paper, got out of his car, picked it up and handed it to Howard. That is awesome. The driver could have honked or hollered to get Howard’s attention, but no, he took some positive action to help. Again, awesome!
Again, my apologies – I have no pictures to post today.
Got on the bike starting at 7:35 A.M. CDT
Got off the bike at the hotel in Winfield at 3:30 P.M. CDT (via SAG van from rest stop #2)
Total travel time: 8 hours 55 minutes
Distance traveled: 55.99 miles (SAG’d between rest stop #1 & #2 all the way to the motel, due to rear tire issues) Amount of climbing: N/A
Actual time on the bike 3 hours 42 minutes and 24 second
Average speed (on bike): 15.1
Max speed attained: 24.3 mph
Total Time on the bike: 85 hours 26 minutes 41 seconds
Total distance traveled on the bike: 1,308.01 miles
Total overall average speed: TBD – have not setup calculation, yet.
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