Wow was the ride today amazing. We had the usual wake up, 5:30 and an efficient morning and were on the road by 6:30 with 127 miles between us and Wheatland. It was one of the warmer days we have had in a while and we weren't all layered up quite as much in the morning, by about 20 miles in we were down to just our jersey's and chamois. I was riding with Jake and Max, the last time I was with the two of them is when Max ran into my back wheel and took us both down less than a mile into the ride, today went much better. Right from the start we were moving quick. I felt really good going into the ride and it carried me through every mile. We did start off the morning with a bit of van trouble, one car encountered a deer on the road that left the van a bit shattered but everyone was perfectly fine. They had to move all the bags to other cars and then be towed back to Casper to exchange for a new rental for the time being so we were down a van on the road until lumch at 75 miles but even with 3 vans the crew was able to be very efficient and kept us moving with only a few red flags but none of them we had to wait at for more than 5 minutes. We held a 17 mph average pace and were cruising at 21-22 on flats with no problem. The terrain was pretty mellow today which helped, mostly rolling hills and long flats so that helped but I was thinking about how much harder those rolling hills were in Washington and how crazy a 22 mph constant pace on flat ground was when we started. Really put the improvements we have made into perspective. The scenery was very cool, we have ridden through the middle of nowhere before but for a good part of this ride it was even more of a nowhere, just grass plains in every direction all the way to the horizon and no structures in sight besides our road, fence posts and power lines, it was so crazy. Towards the end of the ride we had to get racked a few miles across construction but it went very smoothly and we hardly wasted any time waiting to get picked up and driven across. For a while I have been asking guys in my pace line if they think they will continue to bike after the summer and some plan on selling their bike, some keeping it to ride once in a while, every week or so but probably less, I plan to keep my bike for sure though. In the first week of this trip, the Push staff guy that traveled with us to Spokane, KT, told us that by the end of the summer we will be good enough riders that we could compete in a CAT 5 race. That has really stuck with me and got me thinking about what I want to do to keep riding after the summer. I already know I love riding and that I am a strong cyclists and getting stronger plus I love going fast so I am seriously considering trying to do some racing when I get back. I will look into it more towards the end of the summer but it sounds like it would be an awesome thing to do and perfect way to keep me motivated to ride, I would actually be training for something or riding competitively against people, this is a much stronger motivator than just riding for fun. I will have to check out the ASU team and see what kind of help they might be to me to get started and learn more about what racing really entails.
Everyone on the road finished the ride and we arrived at lodging around 4:30 and showered up and made some store runs to pick up snacks and things. Our dinner was sponsored by the Cattle Women's Association and they made us some amazing food, gourmet hot roast beef sandwiches, these cheesy delicious grated potatoes and veggies and 4 different desserts. We were stuffed and so thankful for the amazing meal. After dinner we had another team meeting which was all positive which was great, everyone is working hard and things are going well. We also gave our suppurlatives, last week I got the Lance Armstrong Uniball for best cyclist and today I passed it on to David because, like I have said, his drive and determination to finish every ride is insane and so honorable so he absolutely deserved it.
Our stretch of five 100+ mile days in one week is finally over and we have some much easier rides ahead of us, at least in terms of miles. Tomorrow is only 75 but supposedly lots of hills. Can't wait to get back out there, one day closer to Denver. We also get a nice break tomorrow with a 7am wake up!!
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