The PacTour express is really starting to rumble now, as we all smell the finish line in less than a week. We're seeing a new state virtually every day, as today we roared into Indiana at mid-morning. We're doing big chunks of miles every day....over 1000 in the last week alone. During the cycling season in the summertime at home, if I am riding a lot I will do about 1000 miles in a month. I did 168 miles today, and it went remarkably smoothly.
We started out at dawn, heading toward a large angry appearing blood red Mr. Sun through the mist on the low east horizon, looking like he was warning us that he was about to dish out some serious muggy heat once again. It was Franz's day to ride (crew members get free room, board, and tuition, and get to ride every other day) so I left with him and the clydesdale, and we made Karen the chemistry teacher an honorary member of the hammerhead society for the first 30 miles, then she dropped back. After the first rest stop, the clydesdale did one of his time trial routines. When I finally caught up with him and reminded him that we had a long day ahead, he said that when certain songs come on his IPOD he needs to accelerate. I don't know what he was listening to, but it probably wasn't Beethoven. Eventually he slowed down, and he and Franz and I maintained a steady fast tempo, and finished the long ride in a little over 8 hours in the saddle, just under 20 mph average.
The most accurate descriptor of Illinois and Indiana is FLAT. I don't think I saw a 3% grade all day, and I stayed in my big chainring the entire time. More cornfields and soybeans today.....it sounds like these will continue all the way to West Virginia. We cruised through a bunch of towns with names like Morocco, Mexico, and Peru, but none of them was the least bit exotic. The temperature got up to the low 90's. Occasionally a cloud would pass by and block the sun, and it seemed like the temperature would briefly drop by about 10 degrees. Evaporative cooling doesn't happen much in this muggy heat; beads of sweat appear on your arms and legs and just sit there, until rivulets form. It was dead calm for the first half of the day, then we had a gentle tailwind at the end, our first tailwind since Montana. So much for the supposed "prevailing winds" that are meant to blow from west to east....
I've experienced an additional unanticipated problem in the last few days: being chased by dogs. Even in the rural areas of Snohomish County where I train, most dogs are restrained or fenced. Not in the midwest. Several times dogs have come charging after us. The first 2 times I happened to be going fast, so I could outrun them. The third time the dog was a golden retriever, and he really didn't have his heart in it, and gave up quickly. I saw a coyote today, a remarkable site in an Indiana cornfield.....
The group is shrinking.......a bunch of folks have left the tour for planned and unplanned reasons. The EFI group is dwindling also.......probably now only about a dozen or so. Hard to believe that tomorrow I will complete 3 weeks on the road. It has gone by quickly.
Tomorrow we finish off Indiana and head into Ohio, ending up in the town of Troy.
168 miles. 1100 vertical feet
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