Tough day although the weather was more than cooperative. We had a quartering tailwind WNW which helped us somewhat and the temperatures were moderate. We climbed out of the low desert today and began climbing into the high desert. The foilage (there is none in the low desert) changes significantly and it gets cooler as we are now over 2000 feet vs. below sea level by the end of the day on Monday evening. I really enjoy this part of the country and finally got the monkey off of my back. Today was the segment where in 2006 I could not finish (only 2 people did) as we had very high temperatures and a severe headwind. 117 miles is a long way whether you do it by bike or car. It is really tough. I double shorted today which means I wore 2 pair of bike shorts, one over the other to protect my rear. At $130/pair that means I wore a $260 pair of shorts today, are about 1/2 price for any of you Paris Hilton wanna be's. It is hard to explain to people how hard physically a trip like this can be. We are all crazy.
We began the day by crossing the Colorado River into Arizona. There is something a little disturbing when you see a sign that says "Wickenburg 110 miles". If you look at the pictures you can always tell which ones are shot in the morning. We are all smiles and full of vigor. As the day wears the smiles turn into grimaces and the humor disappears. Survival is the objective. At the end of the ride we were playing games (with money involved of course) to see who could guess the mileage on the next Wickenburg sign. No winners today. I biked with Greg (maybe 2 gs) and Roy, both very strong riders. We rode in a paceline and alternated each taking 1 mile "pulls". A paceline is where we ride about 1 ft behind the wheel of the bike in front and draft, gaining aerodynamics. The person in front typically is working 20-30% harder, but the other 2 benefit. Think of it as NASCAR on bikes. You have to really know and trust the people you are working with as your speed has to be predictable and constant. We did finally get off of the dreaded I-10 Interstate today after 150 miles. Not soon enough for me. About 1/2 of today we rode on Highway 60. Tomorrow the traffic will be even less on the way to Prescott.
Today was the 2nd of 3 tough days followed by 2 relatively moderate days. Meaning we get to sleep in until 6 a.m. vs. 5. Tomorrow we climb 7000 feet. I will have to have my dancing shoes on for sure. Also, since EPO isn't allowed (only bikes will understand this comment) I have to pull together a good collection of music for climbing to fullfil my need for an artificial stimulant. Tomorrow however is a very pretty area and will be most enjoyable although very hard. My computer quit working today so I may have to make up the numbers. Yesterday we averaged almost 18 mph and today I think about 16 or so including the climbs.
Today, we started off by tackling a few long climbs early in the day and climbed a lot for the first 60 miles or so. All of the effort paid off as at the very end of the day we had a downhill into Wickenburg for the last 6 miles. Awesome and a nice reward for the hard work. I burned over 7000 calories today. I now officially hate sugar, gu, candy bars and all sugar products. I have to force myself to eat this crap at the reststops or I wouldn't be able to continue.
I am attaching a few photos... I am so tired I am having trouble writing coherently.
Enjoy
Ty
Ya guys are hauling, even up the climbs. Being EXHAUSTED after a day of riding is the best feeling, EVER! See you in ABQ, in a week!
ReplyDelete