Mike mentioned at route rap this morning that with only a week left, "now is the time to soak it all in!" Many of us have been pushing pretty hard. His point was well taken. Everyone seemed to take today much easier than we have been. It was a good thing for me. After yesterday's low-speed crash...my shoulder was fine, but my ribs were killing me! Mike asked "how ya feelin'"...and I replied "I'm fine as long as I don't breathe or tense my muscles"!! With a 95 mile day with hills...that was gonna be tough! It was! I tried to stay stretched out in my aerobars, but everytime I had to sit up it hurt like crazy. The hills were also tough because standing to pedal is hard. I joked later in the day that..."wild dogs could chew off my leg and I would finish this ride"!
It was about 40 degrees and sunny at the start. It only got up to around 60...so I had my tights, silk undershirt and long-sleeved jersey on all day. More beautiful farmlands today...with a few more hills sprinkled in. We also got into some really nice residential areas with 5-10 acres of land. They looked to be pretty pricey. Lot's of horses out here as well. With everyone taking it easy today we tended to clog up the roads. So...Rob,Judd and I rode about 1/2 mile behind the "clog". We've tried to be as low-impact on the cars we share the road with as possible. In the entire trip...we have only had 22 "honks". I keep track of them as "Members of the Rob Landes Fan Club". We don't know how many of those are friendly honks...but I suspect most are. We've only had one driver "freak-out" on us and start yelling.
The last part of the ride into Niles, took us down a beautiful "rails to trails" path...lined with trees and paved with the smoothest surface ever. Our hotel was short on non-smoking rooms...so I am in the Nicotine Suite. I've had the door open since 3P and have emptied 2 cans of air freshener to try to make it livable. It really stinks!
Tomorrow is another long one at 137 miles (and 3 states OH,Penn, NY)...into Dunkirk,NY. We'll be riding along the eastern shore of Lake Erie most of the day. We are all hoping for tailwinds as we've now been battling headwinds for almost two weeks! The headwinds wear me down more than the hills!
After a hot bath and some ibuprofen my sore ribs seems to be doing better. We'll see tomorrow.
2 comments:
Hope you're feeling better today Dave. Lot's of chatter on the ride this AM about your trip. Everyone was wondering when you'll be back to animate things again...not that it was overly relaxed today despite State Crit Championships tomorrow. Rod had us up to the usual 32+ on Florida just to stretch out his legs.
Take care of the ribs and see you in just over a week.
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