Distance: 80.85 miles
Elevation gain: 5,234 feet
Avg speed: 13.2 mph
Max speed: 47.4 mph
Moving time: 6:06:17
Another hot one today, and another state line crossing. Just a little further and it will be time once again to dip our wheels!
Today’s ride wasn’t overly long (just over 80 miles), but it DID feature plenty of climbing, including one climb of just over 8 miles. Not sure if this climb was the hardest of the tour or not, but it was certainly up there among the toughest of the climbs in my opinion. Of course, that wasn’t the ONLY tough climb today - this route featured SEVEN Garmin climbs!
Because of the heat today, they made ice socks available to us at three locations along the route. For those of you who either missed it or simply don’t remember, an ice sock is a stocking filled with ice that you put down the back of your jersey. They help to keep you from getting overheated, and they actually make a HUGE difference. An interesting difference between today and the last time we got them has to do with the humidity. When we got them out west while crossing the desert, the water evaporated almost immediately. Today? Not so much. As the ice melted today, instead of evaporating it just ran down the back of my jersey and into my shorts, down the backs of my legs and into my shoes. For reasons having to do with how I coast, most of that water ended up in my RIGHT shoe. (Both shoes are currently using my shoe dryers.)
The 8-mile climb was both tough and scary at the same time! Tough because, well, it was a hard climb. Scary because at times the shoulder of the road left a lot to be desired, and the trucks on the road (many of which were carrying oversized loads) did not slow down or move over when passing. Also related to the terrain and the drivers, I had a first today. The driver of a pickup truck felt the need to pass me on a steep downhill segment. For what reason, I have no idea (other than maybe he saw a guy on a bike and was afraid he was going to get “stuck” behind me). However, as soon as he passed me he realized how fast he was going and decided to slow down, riding his brakes the whole way down. So instead of HIM being stuck behind ME, it was the other way around! To make matters even worse, his brakes were overheating on the way down and I got to breathe THAT nastiness the whole way. And, to add insult to injury, he had to turn left at the bottom of the descent, which left me with almost no momentum for the following climb!
Tonight for dinner we had a food truck come that made Jamaican food, which was good. We also had cake and ice cream tonight in celebration of John’s birthday. Tomorrow we are starting only SLIGHTLY early (at 7 and 7:15), and it’s a long-ish day again with a pretty decent amount of climbing.
On that note, here is the video from today:
Tomorrow is a SOMEWHAT early start, so I’m calling it a night. See you all tomorrow!
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