Day Twenty

Hard to believe that this will eventually become a huge river in Little Rock.

30 miles to go and feelin' fine at Col Leo Sydney Boston War Memorial Park. Col. Boston (USAF) disappeared over North Vietnam on April 29,1966 during a rescue mission. His body was never recovered.

Rollin’ on a river

We opened Patio Pancake in Salida at 6am for breakfast with the locals so by 7am the sun was just getting high enough to get the temps into the 50’s. Now imagine the perfect bike route…we’re on a quiet, twisting gentle downhill with a whisper of a tailwind through a steep canyon alongside the headwaters of the Arkansas River…in and out of the shadows just tapping at the pedals easily running 18-20 mph…FOR FORTY-FIVE MILES! If I stopped to take all the photos I really wanted we’d never have made it to Pueblo.

Sometimes during the day I think about our rides at home where we loop out and back so things like climbs and winds even out. On this ride we just keep working our way east so the wind particularly plays a huge factor in how the day goes. Today it just built steadily from the rear pushing us along so that despite 100 degree temperatures when we arrived everyone was feeling pretty frisky after 90+ miles and my average speed for the day was 19.1 before we slowed on the local roads. If you check the elevation from the Garmin information below you’ll also see that we did very little climbing today.

So the first half of the ride was like something out of a dream and we are so lucky to have been able to experience it. The middle part of the ride was fun because we had a pretty good line of riders together and we chased down some people. I was pacing the pack (otherwise Robb makes us ride too hard!) and had another rider in site thinking I would catch him/her before a downhill that I knew was coming. I couldn’t quite pull it off but went flying into the downhill confident that they were mine but not knowing that it was long and steep. After about ½ a mile I realized that I was no longer closing the gap…who is that up there?? Girard, Pam, and eventually Robb came flying around me to make the chase more interesting. They all caught the elusive rider and I eventually caught her too at the bottom of the run…our friend, Lauren, who is a fearless downhiller!

After the second SAG we had 30 miles to go. Larry Frederick had been in front of us all day so his daughter, Adella, left to chase him. Robb never discusses his strategy with me but he apparently decided to chase Adella and Lester just kind of hung back trying to decide what to do. The road was super straight so I had a front row seat watching the action unfold. Shortly after Adella caught Larry Robb caught them both. By then Lester had made his move and left me in the dust. He blasted by the three which, of course, Robb wasn’t going to allow. That’s the last I saw of Robb and Lester.

I passed the father/daughter team and didn’t mind riding solo because the wind was my buddy today. Eventually I caught GLORIA and Nancy about 6 miles out and we stayed together until DAIRY QUEEN just 1.5 miles from the hotel. Of course Robb and Lester were already there and, even better, Robb was treating!

Not sure what we’re going to be doing in Pueblo on our day off tomorrow but if it’s interesting I’ll let you know otherwise you’ll hear from me after our ride on Sunday.

Today’s ratings: (higher the better or easier)

Scenery: 6 (first 45 miles was probably a 10 but we all know there are no tens!)

Road conditions: 9

Grunt factor: 9