Distance: 129 miles
Climbing: 1100 feet
Average Speed: 18.9 mph
Winds: Mild headwinds, 5-10 mph at the start, nothing to speak of at the end
Where to start? It was a rider’s day, a quiet Sunday morning rolling through a green Kansas that is only infrequently that color. I felt good, really good, after sitting in moderately paced groups over the last two fairly short days. Even with the headwinds, I felt like I got some recovery done, so today I ripped it up.
I did the first 70 miles off the front by myself. Cyclists out there will know the sound of bike tires whizzing over blacktop that is wet, but not wet enough to send a spray up your butt and back. I love riding on those roads. The sound absolutely hypnotizes me, and the tires just want to roll. It was Sunday morning so the traffic was quite light and I could hear the birds doing their thing over the fields. I was wrapped in my own little cocoon of motion. I wasn’t pushing it hard, just kind of spinning along at around 17.5 mph, enjoying the solitude.
I rolled into lunch about ten miles ahead of everyone else. With winds forecasted to turn to come from the north at about the same time as our turn to the north, I decided to hang up there until help arrived to “break wind” with me. Ha ha. Bike joke. Sexybike sighs. The crew out here refers to it as homesteading, as in waiting around at a SAG stop so long that I could clear land, plant crops, and have a harvest. I’m glad I waited, because the last 60 miles were a blast.
We passed the half way point of our cross country journey midway between Roxbury and Gypsum on Kansas State Route 304 and had a little ceremony. Wow. Sexybike celebrated by emptying a tire from a slow leak from a side wall puncture. I was concerned this was the beginning of some kind of labor dispute until she reassured me that I was the labor, she the management, and I needed to get the tire fixed because she wanted to ROLL! I think she’s still a little freaked about her Dodge City run-in. The ride leader, Mike, got me changed out because he has raised puncture repair to such a fine art that watching an amateur do it now causes him physical pain.
He and I spent the next 15 miles chasing onto the group, doing maybe 22 mph. He did by far the better part of the pulling while I held on. Granted, he was just starting his day’s ride while I was about 90 miles in, but still, this cat is giving away like 21 years to me. He also leaves a great wheel to ride.
We hung out a bit at the next SAG under a nice gazebo while the neighbors smoked vast expanses of meat in a converted propane tank. It was that kind of day, a day you might as well be on a bike ride as anywhere else, and I wasn’t in the mood to hurry to get anywhere in particular, which you wouldn’t know from the last 30 miles into Abilene.
We raged it, doing an average of around 23 mph with Sam and Jay joining Mike and I in a superfast paceline. One of the nicest things about this ride is discovering how I can ride. After a 70 mile solo flyer into a light headwind, I can still do mile long turns at the front of a paceline doing 24 mph at mile 120. I couldn’t do that two weeks ago, and that feels good.
Sorry this post is a rider dorkout, but it was a rider’s night.
No wise parting words tonight. So long.
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Hey Andy your mother and Joyce are doing their "Roots" walk-about; Johnstown to Mercer County etc. Your trip sounds a lot more interesting. Saturday's museum trip was evocative of the situation in Mercer County where the average farms were small and not cabable of supporting a large family. Now they have chicken ranches ( not of the Nevada type) where they have a million chickens fastened to the floor boards.
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ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying the blog. Seems like you must be closing in on the half-way point. I can't believe the speed and distances you are riding. I'd be interested in hearing more about your fellow riders. Are you enjoying the group?
Hugh
Heya, Hugh. Yup. We passed midway yesterday on the way to Abilene.
ReplyDeleteAs for the group, yeah I'm enjoying it. The common goal is the thing. There's a ton of focus on achieving it, and it takes a total effort. Nobody's going out and checking out the bars or anything like that. Besides riding, it's pretty much eating, icing, sleeping, bike maintenance, and complaining about saddle sores. Getting to Amesbury is the job until May 22nd, and everybody is all business. Other cross country tours aren't necessarily like this, but at an average of 115 miles per day, this one is.
The group is smaller than I thought it was going to be. At maximum we had 12 riders and 3 staff. Only 8 of us were going the whole way and one had to pull out due to internal bleeding so now we're down to 7. Ages range from 20 to 60. I'm the second youngest at 39. We had one lady for the Western segment up to Albuquerque, but now it's all men.
In a way I wish the group was bigger so that I could have more people with whom to ride, but at the same time, I'm soloing quite a lot. I'm enjoying the solitude, and having a rhythm is so important. If other folks aren't on my rhythm, eg. the guys who want to go my pace also want to linger at the SAG stops or soft pedal long sections, I'll typically just go off the front. At the same time, I've held up at lunch stops to do fast pacelines with the staff and some of the strong riders when I've wanted to. Yesterday was pretty typical--77 miles solo, 52 with company. Overall, I'm riding solo more than I expected but only because I want to.
I started the ride as probably the strongest rider out here, but I think I was just better trained than anybody else. One racer has come into form on the ride, and while he can't ride me off his wheel, he can definitely put a hurt on me. Everybody has gotten a lot stronger and the differential between them and myself is dropping.
We have a couple guys, too, who are finishing each day an hour later than I and guys who have done large sections in the SAG van. So it's kind of a mixed bag, but I'm definitely not disappointed. A lot of things are very different than I thought they would be, but I still have an enormous sense of adventure and accomplishment.
I'm not surprised to hear that you the strongest rider. After this, not even Jim will be able to keep up with you. Really sounds like the adventure of a life time.
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