Today’s ride was over the Great Divide at Flesher’s Pass.
This marks a big milestone on our journey east as in theory it is all downhill
now.
Ken and I were off early at 6:45 Am towards the pass. We made good time and in no time were at the
10 mile mark where we turned south on MT 279 towards the pass. We were made to believe that the climb was a
series of steps with a level spot between each step however that was not the
case it was a straight ever increasing gradient to the summit at 6131
feet. The climb was only 9.5 miles and
even though the final grade was around 11% it took me only about an hour to
make the climb. When I got to the summit
there was quite a crowd of cyclists with everyone taking pictures and
celebrating.
After departing the summit we had a wonderful decent through
a pine forest. The wind had picked up
and was delivering a 10-15 mph tail wind.
Sailing down the decent at 30+ mph was easy. After the decent we were out on the rolling
prairie but not the wind had picked up and was delivering a 15-20 mph tail
wind. This resulted us being into picnic
which was at the 53 mile mark around 11:00 am.
Just as Tom Ryan arrived at picnic his bike made a loud
crack and the frame broke just below the seat post. I think that the seat post
was wiggling inside the aluminum tubing and wore a thin spot which eventually
caused the failure. I have never seen a
frame fail in such a dramatic way.
Picnic was in a beautiful river side park in down town
Helena. Shuli’s homemade tortilla soup
was great. I could have hung around all
day eating treats off the picnic table. However with the big tail wind blowing
I had to take advantage of that so off I went.
The ride out of Helena is down a very busy highway. In 2014
it was a horrid ride as it was hot and we had the wind blowing into our
face. Today we had temperatures of
around 75 F and a great tail wind. The
result was even though the road was busy the howling tail wind made up for
it.
I arrived in Townsend at 2:00 Pm at the high school to find that the athletic
coach was refusing to allow any camping on the field and not allowing anyone to
use the showers. Greg was not set up so I wheeled my bike around and rode on
down to the local gas station where I got a couple of roller dogs. They were great. Upon returning to the school we now allowed
to camp in this one little bit of grass which is at the end of the field. I decided to wash in the sink basin in the
men’s room. Looks like the scheduled
practice consists of about half a dozen kids tossing a football around. GO TOWNSEND BULLDOGS GO What a self-serving self-important
little jerk.
Tom rode into the local Trek shop in Helena where they
immediately informed him they will be sending him a new bike. In the meantime Tom
had to buy a new bike so he took a Giant with disc brakes. Looks like a pretty nice ride.
Today’s great tail wind made the 90 mile day and 3260 feet
of climb seem easy. A lot of it was at
25 mph without pedalling.
Do I feel stronger every day or was it just the wind?
Terry
6 comments:
Great day. You must have been in heaven with unlimited tortilla soup, roller dogs, and tail winds.
What a story about Tom Ryan’s bike frame breaking and having to get a new one. Lucky you were near an accommodating bike shop. Enjoy😊
Ugh, how green were the roller dogs? Sounds like A Great day! Good thing Tom wasn't rolling down hill at speed when his bike failed. Hi from the basement dwellers, Ajax says woof.
Agnes
Like Agnes said about Tom! Timing is everything. Good thing you all were close enough to go into a real town with a big bike shop. Won’t be the case in a couple of days! So, were you ever allowed to use the showers? I think in 2014 we were restricted to the end zone as well, plus they were putting in a new track, so it was gravel. But I really need to know about the shower thing, no shower at night and in the morning is a deal breaker and I would have been on my way home! Later, Earnie
Tuesday afternoon is football practice; I remember the same from 2014. Tom Ryan is riding as well? Maybe I should have come along after all!! The continental divide just means that it is net downhill all the rest of the way; still some big climbs to conquer. Teton Pass coming up.
Canada Ken C.
Yikes Terry, you are still eating those roller dogs? You are definitely a man of steel! Here's to you and your tail wind today. Happy that you did not have any obstacles (except for the jerk coach) and were able to sail through your ride.
You are in good form now.. TWO roller dogs!!
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