Hello everyone,

I have to say that today was the hardest day ever. I got up feeling queasy and with not too much in the tank. We began the the day with a 12 mile climb and the same headwinds that had been with us for the first two days returned. The good news was that the temperature stayed south of 100. However, by mile 30 at the first SAG, I realized that continuing might jeopardize the rest of the journey so I asked to get into the SAG. That was the hardest part because I was determined to ride every mile again. At mile 30, I my MPH was continuing to drop even though we had passed the hard climbs.

I was not the only one who bagged it today with about half the group using the van for part of the day. Some took bumps (moved up the road).

Tomorrow the ride is the longest of the entire ride and I think it is likely that conditions will be worse. Two years ago it was definitely much hotter but we had mostly a tailwinds through the desert. I will take heat and tailwinds over headwinds and cooler. I also don’t like to draft  for a number of reasons. I participated in it begrudgingly before but was also resolved to not do it this time.

I will see about posting a few photos later. Somewhere along the way, I also managed to lose my cell phone so I am not so sure what to do about that.

Tailwinds

Chuck