Monday, June 8, 2015

Oingo Boingo "Nothing Lasts Forever"

Interesting how the social interactions morph over time in a group of people thrown together and traveling overland by bike. Our days are fairly rigid with preparing for riding, packing bags, eating, loading bags onto truck, hitting the road for between 6 and 10 hours depending on weather, mechanical issues and miles covered each day.

Post ride, it's about getting recovery nutrition, cleaning/maintaining bike, showering, laundering bike clothes, calling home, attending nightly meeting to review next day's ride followed by dinner, updating blog and lights out.

What's interesting is how our group ride pairings are evolving. As we spend more time riding, many of us are improving our skills, some are getting stronger, others are changing riding priorities (more stops for pictures, local interactions). As a result there are slight changes in who rides with whom. But it's not that rigid as day to day, depending on an individual's fondness for hills or flats or ability to handle heat and humidity vs wind conditions, all these can alter one's enthusiasm or preferred riding preference i.e. with group or going solo for part or all of a given day.

I find my energy levels pretty much dictate who I ride with on a given day. What's nice about the group here is that it's big enough to shift from one group to another or just hang solo for part of a day and pick up with another set of riders later in the day.

Today's ride (107 miles to Springfield, Il from Quincy) was another special day. Lots and lots of cornfields. Sign for "Tractor Cruise"... Conjures up a strange mental picture...

After the wicked hot day yesterday, the violent storms that blew threw overnight really brought down the humidity and the hot winds were replaced by cool tail winds most of the day. We covered the Century ride in remarkable time arriving at the hotel around 2:30 despite two scheduled SAG stops, an unscheduled break for cheeseburgers, and several small stops to greet some folks who came out to cheer on on of the riders who is local to Springfield, Il. The tail winds made traveling slick. The perceived effort was about 12-14 MPH, but the actual speed was more like 19-22 MPH. My kind of day.


Ted, Beth (mark's wife) Bob, Peter, Joanne, Robin, Cynthia, Craig at 2nd SAG this afternoon
 Peter, Cynthia, and JoAnn. 
The big truck and one of two support van's

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