This morning when I woke up there was a very stiff wind
straight out of the south and we were headed straight south. The forecast was for 90F and winds out of the
south at 20-25 mph. Not good.
The first section of the ride started with a huge climb and
then down a very nice rolling country road followed by 10 miles of gravel and
then a bunch of climbs into picnic which was at the 33.5 mile mark. I spoke to Martin and Beth and told them I
was thinking of sagging into picnic. It
took them less than a few seconds to say they were going to sag into
picnic.
We arrived in picnic at around 10:30 and while a little
early for lunch I had a couple of hot dogs and some fresh fruit. The front runners started to arrive and I
had to leave to make room for the egos and the blather about how many watts
they were producing (numbers well in excess of what the Tour riders produce)
but then who am I to criticize. I
thought I could get down the road and have a better chance of seeing some
animals on my own. But this didn’t
happen and I had the road to myself for only 7 miles before the peloton caught
me. Fortunately I was able to dump them
off the front and have the road to myself again.
I had only 31 miles to go from picnic and after 15 miles I arrived
at Hill City where we turned onto a very very busy road. This was a two lane concrete road which was
under repair so the workers had coned the road so that the left lane was closed
and traffic was all moved over to the right.
There was 3 foot shoulder but everyone had their wheels on the white
line. It was extremely scary. After
a couple of trucks went by be with less than 1 foot to spare I pulled off the
road. I decided I would then ride up the
left side of the road behind the cones.
There was 10 miles of uphill grind to Crazy Horse Monument on the
concrete road which is totally devoid of shade or protection from the wind which
is howling straight into my face at 20+ mph. the best I can do is 6 mph. So it takes me over 90 minutes to make the
climb.
I am really glad to have taken the sag to picnic as it was a
very tough day. I saved not having to do
the big climb out of Lead and riding the 10 miles of gravel road.
Terry hot biker
Thanks Ken for letting me use your hot spot as I have no service
4 comments:
Glad to see your subtle humour is alive and well Terry. Important for you to do a good job of leading from the rear!
Glad you made it safely, hi to Ken and Ed.
I remember the gravel road to be quite enjoyable, although you had to pay more attention and stay loose. The concrete highway is also really noisy, as the concrete is textured and vehicle tires running on the textured surface made a lot of noise.
Canada Ken C.
Sounds like another tough day, but you persevered. Picture of Crazy Horse is great...starting to look finished.
What can one say about the speedsters wanting to talk watts. You are starting to become a biking geezer and we generate more gas than watts. Keep smiling.
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