What a beautiful day today. We had record lows upon arrival and experienced record highs prior to departure. Over a 50 degree swing in temperatures, which adds to the excitement of it all. Susie tells a better story, so I'll just post a few pictures and let you read on.
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My recovery tray. |
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Pat Seely, Jon Batek, me, Rob Welsh, Andrew Puddy and Susie. |
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Here's Susie pulling us through the home stretch. |
Susie's Day 6: Yeehaw! 81 miles, baby! I rode with three knights in shining armor today: Randy, Jon and Rob. All three completed the Elite PAC Tour in 2010 -- 3,000 miles across the country in 19 days. You all know Randy is a total stud on the bike, but so are Jon and Rob. They pulled my sorry ass the whole way today and I couldn't have been more grateful. They were very kind and patient with me, and I couldn't have made it to Tucson without them. Well, I could have, but I'd still be out there! We averaged 18.5 mph with some nasty, long climbs. Every time we'd climb, they would say, "That's the last big climb, Jake. It's all downhill from here." Then I'd look ahead and see another hill. Poopyheads! "Oh sorry. Forgot about that climb. Seriously, this is the last one." Other than my cycling partners lying to me, it was a great ride with mostly favorable winds. No tummy issues today and my legs felt pretty good, with the help of my magic pills again. The funny thing is, when we pulled in to the parking lot, all I wanted to do was yell with joy, make a big deal, dance around a bit. But there was so much activity -- the support crew taking care of cyclists' need, cyclists tearing their bikes down and finding their luggage. No one really seemed to notice when anyone arrived. And when I mentioned to a few people that it's the farthest I've ridden in seven years and I've never ridden four days in a row in my life, they just sorta looked at me -- "Yeah, so what?" We pulled in, found our bike boxes and our luggage, and tore the bikes down to get shipped home. We met up with Rob, Jon, Bill and Steve for dinner at Chilis. Don't judge me -- it was the best we could do on short notice. The whole week was quite an adventure! To begin the week with record low temps and end with record high temps is just plain wonky. And what a great group of people. Lon and Susan really do a great job and it was very cool being in their presence. They are legends in the sport and I learned a lot this week. Not sure if I'll attend another PAC Tour in the future, but perhaps after the pain in my everything heals up, I may consider it.