103 miles in just over 5 riding hours including 5K vertical feet, into the motel by 2pm, a 20.3 MPH average on an honest climbing day. Probably close to a personal best for a century time. Tom says not to tell the truth, but here it is: the weather gods smiled upon us. We had a SCREAMING tailwind, 30MPH+ and gusting (according to the news) to 45 MPH. Lon’s Rule is to ride at conversation pace so you don’t wear yourself out. Ok, riding side by side at 27+ MPH and we’re having a pleasant conversation. A slight (1%) downhill and coasting along at 31 MPH. Did I mention the FLYING TAILWIND? 50MPH+ on long straight downhills. It was a little frightening when the wind (or road orientation) shifted and you were pushed from the side instead of behind, the word “buffeted” describes the experience of getting knocked around sideways and having to ride at an angle into the wind, or heaven forbid you had to ride into it (for 2 miles coming back from lunch). But to ride with the tailwind was amazing, especially if you were slightly heavier\bigger so you got the push benefit without the thrown around by the wind tax. Except for sore hands from the death grip on handlebars to keep control during the sidewinds it was a second "couldn’t be better" day (will this keep up?). I wish we could take credit for the speed... it was just our great fortune to be riding today, and we rode with some good folks who were as delighted with the experience as we were, Jonathan from Oz, Roger from Germany, Karl form Kenmore and Craig from Los Altos.
And tailwinds were just the start of the good news today. We went to bed last night in Wenatchee at 85 degrees, woke up to 70 and despite brilliant blue skies it stayed relatively cool throughout the day. Plus the canyon we started today riding into was filled last night with smoke from brush fires (no forest to burn there). Just a disgusting scene: thick mud brown smoke, spot fires visible on the hillsides, and no wind to move the haze around so it just sat between the canyon walls. This morning the canyon had cleared and as we rode on the opposite side of the Columbia River valley from where the fire was only a faint smell of smoke remained. From the Columbia we climbed up onto the plateau above (10 miles of shallow grade) where the tailwinds sped us east on Rt 2 which was absolutely great riding with wheat fields that stretched to the horizon in all directions and perfect asphalt. After turning north at Coulee City and following the east shore of Banks Lake on Rt 155 the roads had frost heave, horizontal cracks every 15 feet, whump, whump, whump, and the wheat was gone, replaced by sage brush fields and vertical basalt walls, outcroppings, and cliffs. Tonight we’re staying at the base of the Grand Coulee dam, we can look out our motel window and see it right in front of us. If anything happens to the dam tonight, well, we won’t be around for long when 150 miles of Lake Roosevelt comes through here in a hurry.
Last thought: breakfast was later this morning (6:30am, not 6) so we had leisurely time getting there, then back into the room for bags, and back out to drop them off and get on the bikes. And just like yesterday Tom and I were last to leave the parking lot, which creates a pang of worry and sense of needing to rush to catch up. Not that anyone waits for us (or anyone else), we're all on our own clock for leaving and ride time, but more an example of the rush to rush approach that still pervades the group. Here we had a short day (even without tailwind it was short), more than reasonable start time, and everyone still bolted at first possible minute. Funny thing is about 20 riders made an immediate wrong turn at the bike path, and another group of 10 made a wrong turn at the river, so literally 5 minutes after leaving Tom and I were ahead of everyone else. NOT that it’s a race, it’s just funny what bikes do to you, the desire not to be left behind is incredibly strong. Time to wash the bikes.
Oh, and a deer and a quail is it for roadkill.
Dinner was at Melody's, everything from a can (cold fettucini noodles for me but Tom was a fan of the lemon merange pie).
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