27 Gears and used them all!


How do you describe today? WOW! Zowie! Zounds! I don't know pick one. But before you do let me give you a little back ground. The sun is out, with not a cloud in the sky. The temperature starts in the high 50's and is going towards mid 70's by lunch. The scenery is beautiful green hills covered with trees and fields. The road is this little used back country road with almost zero traffic. Now here is the kicker. We are riding 75 miles from Chillicothe to Kirksville, and there are 148 hills. The pitch on these hills is up to 16% with and average height of maybe 200 feet. You can stand on top of a hill and see 4-5 of these ups and downs. The perfect roller coaster. The only way to ride these is flat out. I am talking big ring time here. You start from the top of one of these hills pedaling as hard as you can by time you hit the bottom you are at 35 mph. Then your are into the up slope down shifting as you go. I had been saying that you are pulling 2G's at the bottom but my aeronautical engineer roomie says that it is only 1.5G's. If you get it right a little bit of standing carries you over the crest. By now you have done the math and realized the each hill is only 0.25 miles down and 0.25 miles up. However their not all the same length and there were lots of mile long climbs and down hills. So there was lots of spinning it out to crawl up a mile long hill in low gear at 6 mph. It was huge fun on the hills.



However they do wear you down and by the 69 mile mark I am exhausted. Just 2 miles to a store where I can get some food and have a rest. Then there is my friend Jose. Together we sat and chatted while I had a convenience store burrito (actually they aren't bad, but then I have very low standards especially when I am starving and exhausted). Feeling much revived we cruised in the last 4 miles.

The town of Kirksville was the scene of a civil war battle. I don't think it was a very big one but it seems to be its claim to fame. It is also home to the Truman State University. I saw that on a sign. Our hotel is on the side of town that we came from so I haven't ridden though it. However being a university town you know that your bike isn't safe. Tomorrow is Sunday and we leave at 7:00, so the kids will not be up when I ride though town.

Today's picture is of the rolling hills. From this vantage point there are five hills which are visible. They were just a ton of fun to fly over.

Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for your great comments. At the end of the day it is great to open the journal to see what people have said.

Ride it like you stole it!

Terry