Headed out this morning about 6:45 after breakfast in the hotel parking lot for the mostly flat 148 mile ride to Missoula. PAC does a really good job with the meals on this ride. Fresh strawberries, all kinds of pastries, bagels, cereal and hot chocolate and coffee is the presentation this morning. It was cool enough for gloves starting out but later became quite warm and sunny but still very low humidity. My game plan was to ride very conservatively and hopefully make it to the finish without getting too beat up to ride the next day. Everything went according to plan but when we started heading due west on the final leg is when the headwinds did their worst damage. It really sucks when I have to work hard going downhill just to keep a decent pace. We had been battling headwinds all day but fortunately the leg south down hwy 83 was protected by heavily forested areas on either side. I shamefully wheel sucked a lot of the time, grabbing the last wheel on two or three man pacelines then slowly worked my way up the food chain to faster groups. By the end of the ride I was with "Cat", the 2005 RAAM winner and her 3 man entourage swapping pulls for the last 25 miles into the strong headwind until they starting attacking each other for the town limit signs. Couldn't believe these people still had the energy to do that! I believe this group was second to finish, as two riders were checking in ahead of us at the rest stops, which were about every 25 miles. She told me later she was not in the best shape and was trying to "ride into shape" for the first few days. She told me I should feel a lot stronger 10 days down the road. I hope she's right.
All in all, the ride wasn't very pleasant except for the magnificent mountain scenery, lakes, and fast moving streams along the way. The roads were busy with fast moving log trucks and RV's making close passes. The shoulders were decent, but pretty gravelly. Maybe tomorrow will be better.
Here are some final statistics:
Riding time: 8 hours 8 minutes
Overall time: around 9 hours
Average speed: 18.3 mph
Max speed: 36 mph
No pictures today, I was traveling light. I wanted to walk around and see some of nearby University of Montana but was just too damn tired. Better rest up for the long ride with some climbs tomorrow.
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