I was the first to be out of camp this morning. The raccoons got into my bread and peanut butter and helped themselves to some nice sandwiches. So I got out early to find some breakfast. Went through some very nice country roads in the morning. Daniel caught up with me again and they meant my speed went also went up. That put us at the lunch stop very early so we missed out on a catered Amish meal
that was organized by Cyber. We made it to camp early and had a very nice relaxed afternoon.
The left tube blew out today so I replace the BigApples with Kojak's. Later the day I also had a flat. That now puts it at 9 flats.
It was real good to sleep in a bed last night. We had Chicago style pizza last night and again this afternoon. I am pizza'd up. It was so exciting to see Chicago again. There is nothing to report on the cycling because it was only 60 miles and was in city traffic for the most. We only have 7 days left and part of it will be nice and flat and the other part might be very hard. We will just have to see and hope for the best.
And again my GPS did not want to load the track for the day so I had to stick with people that had a working GPS. It made for a slower longer day but it was a lot of fun to stay with Hasse and help each other with drafting. Nick and Wes also joined us for parts of the ride. We stopped at a little town and had the best sandwich ever with fried cheese! Four cups of coffee and lots of water. We stayed there for quite a long time and watched all the others passed. So tonight we are treaded with a very nice hotel stay in Evanston.
And again the GPS wants to make a turn in Africa for some reason.
Started of very slow with three big hills to cross. Grade 7&8! Avg 12mph for the first half of the day and it brought the moral down a bit. Lucky for me Daniel caught up with
me with his electric Quest and it helped a bunch. He stayed in front of me so I had someone to chase. The last 40 miles we stayed between 25-32mph. It make time goes by pretty quick then. We got to the pub in Madison and enjoyed a nice Guiness. Stayed there way to late and only got to camp at 8:30 in the dark after a couple of wrong turns. It started of hard and boring and ended in a blast!
According to the GPS I made a stop in Asia but don't believe everything a computer tell you.
We went from Hastings to Onalaska. Left Minnesota and are now in Wisconsin. I did not feel very strong today but still kept up a good speed and made very good time.
I took it very easy these two days. Fri was only 100mi and Sat was 60mi. These rest days were very good for the body and everything is starting to feel normal again.
One long day! One of the hardest so far. Mentally and physically I was a little tired. I am trying to go as slow as I can but maybe I am pushing still to much. Tomorrow I will make sure I am first to leave and last to arrive.
The road surface was also bumpy today and without suspension it is hard on the already hurt feet.
The day started off with a moderate climb. I felt good and fresh so I did as much as the achilles would allow. I caught up with Josef Janning in his blue car on Quest and we stayed together for the most part of the day. He is a very strong rider and thanks to him I was pushing a little more on the climbs. There were construction on hw12 so we had to take a detour that ended up on a 5 mile gravel road. The quest was able to manage the rough road but I opted to get out and push. No fun! By the end of the gravel road the rest was starting to caught up with me. Once on the Tarmac the lunch stop was not to far away. I bought a bag of ice and I iced my feet while I was enjoying a Subway sandwich. With nice fresh feet the last stretch of 28 miles was a lot of fun. I was able to keep it up to 30mph for a good part of that 28 miles.
Today was the biggest millage day of the whole trip. We did 166miles today. Unfortunately for me I had to take it slow because of the Achilles. So all the uphills were super slow but I was still able to speed up on the downhills. When I scoot fwd in the seat it is a bit better on the achilles but worse on the knees so I had to play around with my seat position all day. With bad feet and all I still made good time. To to
Frans
www.pterovelo.com
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The rest day helped with stamina today. It started of with a fairly big hill this morning. I was able to push fairly hard up the hill and made a good start. The rest of the day was more rolling hills and the tail wind picked up and just got stronger through the day. The rest of the day was nice and fast. Once we entered ND the road turned super smooth, what a pleasure. Until the road stopped and turned into dirt. There were about 6miles of construction going on and I decided to push the velo most of the way. Martin and Machiel caught up with me just when I got back on the asphalt and we pushed pretty hard on the last 12 miles. I could feel my right ankle complain a little. Tonight I iced the feet, soaked them in some Epsom salt and rubbed some Voltaren on them. Right now they are much better.
Frans
www.pterovelo.com
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153.9mi. 7:57
avg 19.3mph
max 58.4mph
The day went very well right up to the last 15 miles. Had two flat tires that broke my wind a little, but all and all it was a great day.
Was a very nice short day today. Mostly downhill with a couple of good climbs. Felix and I stayed together for the most and it was very nice.
Blood, sweat and tears today. Crossed one more mountain today. The good thing is it was real pretty.
It felt like I had flat tires all day long! The legs just did not want to perform. I did not do very good today.
Was running on a 53 teeth all day and really missed the 72 on the down hills.
We left Missoula today fairly slow. Just had some written direction to follow. Once we got to the interstate it picked up a bit. Mark came up with a brilliant idea to paint arrows on the road where we should turn and once I got to those it was smooth sailing until I missed one arrow and came to a dead end. Had to turn around but my luck it was not to far off.
At last we got to our big climb. It was a little shorter and about the same grade of 5% just like the last one but I made a point to take it as slow as I could. I swapped the 73 tooth chain ring for a 49 tooth the night before and that allowed me to spin easy at 4mph but still I found it a little harder than before. Got to the top at last. The Rockies was concord! Going down was good but I did not have the 73t to push so gravity was the only option.
So we got to the bottom and reached Helena and I thought game over but the gps said still 20mi to go. So it turned out that the 20mi had 2 big climbs of grade 7.5% !!!!! Very tough and I was very glad I swapped those chain rings.
We started the day at Three Rivers Resort. Followed the river again but it was a slightly higher grade than yesterday. I stayed with the Quests for a while. They were going up the steep hills a little faster than I was comfortable with and had one or two lower gears than me. But I could out run them on the down hills and they did not catch back up. Half way up the hill I found Daniel with his electric Quest. We played touch and go for a bit and then I tugged in behind him and we made very good time going up. The last 9 miles going up the pass was between 4% to 6% all the way and I could keep a steady 5.5mph up the hill. We got to the top just in time! Feet got real hot. We hanged out for while before we took on the down hill. The road down was a little bit twisty at first so I did not pick up to much speed, but it was long and steady. I managed to keep it around 40mph all the way down to a gas station just before Lolo. We stopped again and for a while. Went down another 3miles to Lolo and found a place to eat. Then it was a nice fast pace through Missoula to the KOA.
Start was 720ft camp is at 1500ft. It was just one long slow climb all along the Clear river.
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