Riding day 11
Wendover to Salt Lake City, Utah
118 Miles
1260' climbing
7 hours 16 minutes
3519 calories
16.2 mph average speed
33.3 mph maximum speed
Up at 4 am local time (3 am yesterday's time) to get to restaurant for breakfast. Goooood omlette and toast, fresh OJ was all I could wolf down before suiting up and bring bike and luggage do
Prior to our 6 am start, we posed for a group photo. The tour director said he'd use it to ID any missing cyclist who didn't make it across the 80 or so miles of salt flats. Funny, not funny. What I didn't process in last night's route rap, was there would be only two watering stations between Wendover and Salt Lake City. Blazing sun, straight highway into a seemingly endless horizon, what could possibly go wrong?
Due to the success of the previous day’s tough but successful pace
line, our little party of 9 regrouped a few miles into the ride headed doggedly
east on I-80 yet again. Fearing projected headwinds, we kept to a steady pace
but didn’t put the hammer down on it altogether. Apparently, no one felt fully
refreshed after yesterday's ride and losing an hour due to time zone change and
needing to start an hour earlier. Everyone here is tough but this is a tour not
a race.
The day went exceptionally well. One flat in our group slowed two of us down but we made remarkable time. We did have a slowdown due to road construction about 30 miles to go and we did start cooking while waiting for the flagger to move us along.
I admit my butt gave out with about 50 miles to go. I did a lot of standing on my pedals to take an air break - Just getting off the hot seat to relieve the pressure. Although it is a relief, you expend energy standing and have to put more into the pedals once you return to the seat and get back into the cycling rhythm.
Patience and persistence were rewarded and the mileage clicked to 118 and the hotel appeared. Ready for the first rest day.
I admit my butt gave out with about 50 miles to go. I did a lot of standing on my pedals to take an air break - Just getting off the hot seat to relieve the pressure. Although it is a relief, you expend energy standing and have to put more into the pedals once you return to the seat and get back into the cycling rhythm.
Patience and persistence were rewarded and the mileage clicked to 118 and the hotel appeared. Ready for the first rest day.
Getting ready to assemble team to leave SAG.
Didn't take pictures earlier as we were focused on getting across.
And it was hard to get an interesting perspective on the vast open spaces
It felt like how it looks. Hot, Dry
At SAG stop #2. Mile 90 - with 30 more to go
Waiting...waiting...
That's the A-team ahead of Matt (with back pack),
American Jerry (yellow), Ole (#16), and Dan
Cars starting to pull behind us in line waiting for Flagger Man
Flagger Man
Three dots on left are group of people heading to Lake
Full of brine shrimp, smelly, and lots of flies
Locals don't swim there more than once.
Temple by shore of Great Salt Lake
No comments:
Post a Comment