Day 5 Cottonwood,Az to Winslow,Az 107 miles@17.2 mph

Today was another beautiful day! Filled with incredible contrasts from the desert to the Red Rocks of Sedona to the mountains and then the bleakness of the prairie desert into Winslow. All beautiful in their own way. It was also Day 2 of monster climbing (see profile). The “Gang of 3” me, Rob and Judd started the day together again, having spent all day yesterday climbing and laughing (so hard my stomach hurt last night!). The laugh-fest started with an innocent comment from Rob (whose last name happens to be LANDIS…he swears no relation to Floyd, but I am suspicious!) ,doing an impersonation of (british) Tour de France commentator Phil Ligget: “it looks like Landis has the boys in a spot of bother”…as he rolled away from us on a climb. I responded in my best Phil voice as we caught him: “oh, no Bob…it looks like Landis has sipped from the challis of pain one too many times”. (If you don’t watch the Tour de France this won’t make sense…I apologize!) Anyway, the rest of the day was spent bantering back and forth as if we were being commented on by Phil, Paul and Bob…pretty funny! It also makes the climbing much less painful. We added a 4th member today, Bill. He was a huge help as we battled the headwinds down I-40. He’s also a great bike handler…and that’s why we’ve been so careful about who we let in. He’s safe, steady and predictable. And he laughs at our dumb jokes! I felt great today. I was really worried that another day in the mountains would wipe me out. I’ve been eating every chance I get ...and I think that has made a big difference. I have a huge breakfast…usually 2-3 eggs ,a couple of pancakes, some bacon, hash browns, OJ and a coffee. Then 3-5 bananas, a couple of Clif Shots (Thanks Rocco!!)…before our first SAG around 10A. At lunch I take a big tortilla and put everything I can find on it…barely able to fold it. Then finish that off with my new creation: The Dessert Sandwich! More Clif Shots and bananas...then a Clif Bar or two at the hotel. All finished off with a big dinner wherever we can find within walking distance of the hotel. I’m hoping to gain weight on this trip and appears my plan is working!
Tomorrow start a 3 day ultra-mileage torture-fest…127 ~ 146 ~ 133 …OUCH!
Gotta get to bed! dd