Day 08 – June 24th

Rolling out of Twin Falls, Idaho after a quick breakfast, I found the wind at my back and a mild June day just beginning; it looked like today was going to be a great day to crank. Gary and I were planning on knocking off another 100 miles on this beautiful June day in our quest for the blue waters of the Atlantic. The first few miles fell by the wayside in no time, but at mile 8 Gary blew a tire. We quickly realized the tire had a nasty gash in it and would need to be replaced (usually you just replace the tube and can quickly get back to riding.) Larry, always close by, stopped the support vehicle to drop off a new tire and tube and a few minutes later we were back on the road and rolling. At mile 9 we hopped onto Interstate 84 and started pounding out some serious miles. With a steady breeze encouraging us, we held a pace between 22 and 25 mph; things were going great. We remained on the interstate for the majority of the day; until mile 86 in fact. The interstate treated us well, only a 10 or 20 mile portion of it was rough pavement that sent vibrations pulsating down our arms and into our shoulders; luckily the rest of the ride was smooth and great for cycling. The miles were falling off quickly until around mile 50. I was crossing over the oncoming ramp lane, no traffic in sight (always a good sign) when my front tire was sucked into some loose gravel. This cycle-hungry gravel pitched my bike to the left and I soon found myself fighting for control of the bike as I was jarred over a series of deep grooves in the road. Being shaken like a baby (I know I know, that’s not politically correct) my rear light slid into my spinning wheel and the light disintegrated into a million tiny red pieces; my spokes were pretty pissed off about the entire assault. After stopping the bike to check the damage, I realized my wheel was no longer true (meaning it didn’t spin in a tight circle, but instead wobbled.) This required me to open up the entire rear brake; effectively eliminating its use. I was down to just my front brake, but all things considered, it could have gone a lot worse; if the light hadn’t shattered but instead locked up my wheel I would have gone head over heels over my handlebars; that’d have made for a fun day! I road on with my wheel wobbling for about 15 miles before stopping at our bike shop on wheels and switching out the entire rim and cassette for the spare that Gary had brought along (thank goodness for that foresight!) 2 miles down the road I picked up a screw and destroyed the tire and the tube on the new wheel I had just put on; great! Soon we were finally off again and the rest of the way was pretty uneventful. We ended up with 104 miles and averaged 20.6 mph; we are both pretty proud of that average considering the 800+ miles we’ve put in over the last 8 days. We finished our ride in Aberdeen, Idaho this afternoon and drove to Blackfoot, Idaho where our hotel is located. We will be driving back to Aberdeen to begin tomorrows ride.

I realized something ironic today in regards to my riding. Before this adventure began, I had only completed 3 rides in excess of a hundred miles. I had done the HHH( a century ride in Texas), Reach the Beach (a century ride in Oregon), and a 12 hour time trial with Martin a few weeks ago (it was held in Washington State and we completed about 180 miles that day). These are the only three rides of 100+ miles I had ever done prior to this ride; Gary has dozens and dozens that he’s completed. I think it’s a good thing I didn’t point this out to him prior to the trip, as he probably wouldn’t have asked me to accompany him if he’d known. Oh well, no time like the present to rack up some centuries. Tomorrow should be another fairly flat day, and then we will have some long climbs to ride our way into Wyoming; should be a good time. It’s a sick world where climbing up mountain passes is fun. The knee held up really well today; it didn’t really get painful until about mile 70. Definitely a vast improvement over what it has been.