Day 16 Brutal!

It was a day we'll never forget...and not in a good way! Both of us were "cactus", Aussie slang for being totally exhausted, both physically and mentally.

The day started out like most previous rides. Mike and I were near the last ones on the road at 7:10...our first mistake. Then we stopped at a convenience store to buy some baby-wipes...don't ask, and then we looked around a low key but interesting pioneer museum at the first rest stop.  Now we were well behind most other riders that we usually gang up with (Jerry\MN, Walt, maybe Wes if he is feeling slow) and facing a relatively strong SSE wind (10 to 20mph) winds on terrible roads. We were headed East, so not exactly a headwind but enough to slow us down by 3 to 5mph. The winds lasted the entire day, getting stronger in the afternoon.  Absolutely the wrong day to be without a pack to share the load, like when Phil Ligget talks about a rider being stranded solo, we were that someone.  Most days we start late and are plenty strong enoguh to ride through to folks to work with, this time being late early caught up with us.

The roads too were not our friends. These were old farm roads with lots of cracks, seams and frost heaves. And they were seemingly uphill most of the time as we were battling the wind. We actually rode on I90 (the Interstate) for about 10 miles which we liked as it was smooth and was more gradual in it's inclines and declines.

Temperatures approached 100F in the afternoon....but with the wind it only felt like 95F!  It was hot.
Mike & I rode together until Chamberlain which is where we crossed the great Missouri River.  Chamberlain is also where they have the South Dakota Hall of Fame.  Quick.....can you name at least 2 people who are in the State's Hall of Fame?  We couldn't come with any until later in the evening when we went out with a friend or a friend living in Mitchell, S.D.  Give up?  Two of the more  famous South Dakotans would be George McGovern (ran for President in 1972 as a D against Nixon....and whose office was broken into at Watergate) and Tom Brokaw, the long-time anchor of NBC Nightly News.

Back to the ride....about 7 miles out of Chamberlain was our lunch stop where I arrived ahead of Mike by about 7 or 8 minutes.  Turns out he nearly ripped a cleat off of his cycling shoes (he's a big powerful guy!) so that he was basically pedaling with one leg/foot.  A screw was missing leaving 2 remaining which he tightened down and after lunch, rode to the next rest stop where he replaced his shoes with an extra pair out of his baggage (which was fortuitously at this stop).  Since there wasn't anything I could do, I left Mike after lunch and road the remaining 62 miles by myself (as it turned out...Mike did as well). 

Hot temperatures affect us differently....for me, it was bad but for Mike it was a lot worse.  He would go through 2 water bottles within half the distance of the rest stops, and have nothing for nearly an hour of solitary riding.  And he couldn't cool himself fast enough....he was about to go "cactus".  I had a 5:00PM massage which I knew I couldn't make but Mike had one at 5:30 which I busted my butt to get to....rode the last 24 miles in 1:20 against a sidewind....basically a time-trial effort.  Made it exactly at 5:30 but the maseusse looked at me and told me to get a shower first and he'd see me at 6:00.  The massage near felt better. Mike finally showed up a few minutes before 7:00 and went straight to our room to take a cold shower to get his core temperature down.  He succeeded somewhat and we were off to a 7:30 dinner with our Mitchell acquaintance.

What did we learn?  Don't leave late/last.....drink lots and keep drinking....headwinds suck....and we're tired of South Dakota.

Stats......145 miles in a little under 9 hours for me (+10 hours for Mike)....16.4mph.  Road kill?  Too tired and hot to bother counting...and we can't remember.  Suffice to say...there were deer, skunks, etc on the road.