Day Ten

Ruby Mountains

Jon had a little dust-up earlier in the tour. He now rides with a fractured rib and punctured lung but between the Vicoden and blowing into this contraption every two hours he says he's great! I have never seen any bubbles come out the top.

Final sweep into Wendover with Bonneville salt flats in the distance.

Everyone who comes to Nevada should stay at a place like this.

High Limit Lester

Good-bye Ruby Tuesday.

I was told that the snow-capped mountain range that we saw yesterday and conquered today are the Ruby Mountains…just a little bump on the way to that big mountain range in Colorado next week.

Today’s virtual rider is my niece, Mia. I really meant to ride with her last week on her birthday but I got mixed-up on the date so she rode with me on the tenth day of our trip. Four years ago when she was only 10 she did the 3-day White Rim with us in Moab, UT and she was incredible. These days most of her riding is done on a horse but I’m betting she’s just as good as she was on the bike. Happy belated birthday Mia!

Today was the first century ride (100+ miles) and the strategy was to ride it in three sections since there were two SAG stops. Almost the entire day was spent on I-80 but we’re getting used to it and the traffic is pretty light with clean shoulders.

The first 40 mile leg was really meant as a warm-up and I was lucky to get out of breakfast a bit early so I took off after some of the slower riders who had started early in hopes of getting in at a decent hour. Cool and dry riding with no wind and I got to the SAG in great shape still with no sign of the fast riders behind me.

The second 30 mile leg had most of the day’s climbing but it never exceeded 5-6% grade although the final climb into the second SAG was challenging because we had 60+ miles in our legs. Lester, who never met a hill he didn’t like, caught me about half way up and politely stayed with me for a few minutes before he kicked in his hill gear for the final mile. Phil joined us at the SAG and as the three of us left as others started to roll in.

Everything felt great and now we just had the final 30 mile leg left. This was the easiest leg because much of it was downhill and everything was going just according to plan…until the wind picked-up. High wind warnings were forecast and they caught up to us with about 15-20 miles out. At one point I thought I was going to be blown across the rumble strip onto the highway…and it started to rain…sideways. As quickly as it started it also stopped. So the final leg was a bit more challenging than advertised but all in all it was a good day.

Rode through my first time zone so we’re in mountain time now and we’re within a mile of the Utah border so we’ll knock off another state before 7am tomorrow.

And the excitement didn’t stop with the riding today because I got stuck in the elevator during a power failure on the way to route rap. I was by myself so I just sat on the floor and meditated about all the day’s excitement. Fortunately they got me out in time for dinner!

Today’s rating: (high numbers are better or easier)

Scenery: 7 (Ruby Mtns and salt flats around Wendover)

Road Conditions: 6 (would have been better except for WIND)

Grunt factor: 5 (hey it’s still 100 miles!)

Sorry the post is late but I guess casino hotels don’t have internet access in the rooms for some reason…