117 miles ridden – 2684 feet climbed.

Our last century ride and it was a fabulous day although it was longer for me than it should have been. We have been constantly reminded as we have moved eastward that we have left behind the large empty spaces of Idaho, Wyoming and South Dakota. Whereas there we may go 50 miles without any road junctions and can safely ‘zone out’ here we cannot and today I did – twice – adding 5 miles by the time I had retraced my steps and got back on course. But it didn’t matter.

It was quite cool to start with and although the temperature reached 33C/91F by the time we finished I must admit I found it quite comfortable. It will be even more comfortable tomorrow as I found a barber and had a number 5 clipper cut – no point having insulation I do not need. He was a very nice and tolerant man who let me bring my bike into the shop and let me sit in his chair in my sweaty, smelly, butt balm ridden cycle gear. I still had 4 miles to go and even I thought I smelt bad. 

We had a slight tailwind for much of the day which made up for the occasionally poor road surface (remember you can’t have temperature, gradient, wind, and road surface all in your favour at the same time) but what made the ride seem to go quickly was the constantly changing landscape. Forest one minute, lakes the next, small farms, big farms, residential, heathland…. It felt like every corner we turned brought a new sight to be taken in.

Given the distance we had three SAG stops today. The last one was at an old people’s home where we were made very welcome although I suspect the amount of Lycra caused some hearts to flutter. Because of the number of towns we now pass through where there are opportunities to buy food the SAG stops become more of an added bonus than an absolute necessity although the support team still provide plenty of opportunities to get water along the route.

Michigan seems so far to be the most varied landscape we have seen. These photos were taken early showing the mist over a river/lake delta and the nearby roads – quite stunning:

I cycled with lots of different people today. I started as always with Darin, Heather and Murray but our paces were particularly different today so we were 10-15 minutes apart at the first two SAGs. I spent time riding with Greg from Arizona, Jenny from San Diego, and Mark from Seattle but large stretches on my own which I have tended to avoid but today was it was nice.

Buildings like this cover the landscape but few are as well-kept. I love the red of the barn contrasted with the white windows, green grass, blue sky, and weathered silo.

From here the density of towns with hotels able to take a party of our size increases to the point where we can regularly average our 80 mile per day target. This makes a big difference as it gives us a bit more time (2-3 hours) to stop and savour some of the sights along the way and/or have milkshakes. Today was 7.5 hours of cycling – yes I know, 117 miles at an average speed of 15.7 mph! – with an additional 60-75 minutes for SAG stops so it was a long day. We now look forward to the potential luxury of eating breakfast before we grease up and put Lycra on. You have to be here to know just how good that feels.