I had been checking the weather forecasts for a few days prior and it looked like it would be good riding weather, though it was still going to start fairly cool at around 50 degrees. In my meticulous Wednesday night prep, I realized that I had forgotten my arm warmers at home where they occupied a drying rack in the laundry room where they had hung since Monday night. I did have a vest to layer with, but worried a bit about being too cold first thing in the morning.
I woke up at about 6:00, headed down to breakfast and loaded up on rolls, cereal and fruit. I really wanted a waffle (they smelled fantastic), but knew that the syrup that I would have applied would have become a coating in my gut that would have had me loathing my existence after an hour or so. I headed back to the room, got suited up and headed out.
The route for the day was from Chamberlain to Pierre (an advertised 83 miles) with an optional century loop north of town to Oahe Dam which was to bring the total ride to 104 miles (again, advertised). I had decided to ride from the hotel so that the fam could sleep in a bit which would tag on a little more than three miles to my total ride for the day, but it would also give me a chance to warm up a bit before the first big climb of the day. As I arrived at the campground which was the official start point for the day, I saw Matt (one of the guys I met on Monday) unloading his bike from his dad's van. Our timing couldn't have been better and I knew that I'd have a riding companion for at least the first part of the day.Chamberlain is a community located in the Missouri River Valley which means that in order to leave Chamberlain, you must climb out of the valley. The first climb starts within a half mile of the campground and I remembered from the 2005 ride that it was a fairly long hill with a decent grade and that it makes for a rude wake up call. The extra miles that I had put in actually did serve as a good warm up and Matt and I were able to chat a bit over the first hills as we got to know each other a bit.
Matt is originally from Sioux Falls, spent some time in the military and has been in Arizona for the better part of seven years where he drives a trailer at night and goes to school during the day for English/Spanish translation. He was riding a Pinarello frame that he built up with an assortment of Campy parts and rides a good deal. He definitely had the advantage over me as he's already got over 3000 miles in his legs since December where I've had to scratch and claw to get over 1000. He is a very strong rider and I could tell fairly early that I was not quite in his class.
We rode along and talked a bit as we hit some pretty horrible roads by Fort Thompson and continued to find rolling hills with the occasional big dig to contend with. The weather had warmed slightly, the sun had come out for the first time all week and the winds had shifted from north/northeast to straight out of the east. As our course took us straight north and then almost straight west, this meant that for the majority of the day we would benefit from a slight tailwind. We couldn't have asked for better conditions to ride a century.
I knew I was digging fairly deep to keep a pace that wouldn't hold Matt back and finally at about 35 miles I was starting to bonk. Matt encouraged me along and did the bulk of the pacemaking at that point, but we finally got passed by a couple of riders and I waved Matt on to let him know it was okay if he wanted to take off. He said, "Let's go" and accelerated. I tried to go with, but just didn't have any power left at that point. I started to settle into a pace a little more to my liking and actually caught up to a guy named Kevin who I had done a bike fitting with the week before. Having a chance to talk to someone else who was riding a little more manageable pace was just what I needed. I rode with Kevin and a friend of his for a few miles before seeing that the two guys who had passed earlier were doubling back and Matt was holding up waiting for me to catch back on.
Once I rejoined Matt, I had recovered enough to go with him on the next hill where we lost Kevin and settled back into our earlier pace. Matt was letting me sit in his slipstream for long pulls and then letting me dictate the pace up the hills. By the time we made the turn to head west, I had recovered enough to do my part of the work and we kept a tempo of about 22 mph pretty steadily.
We hit the "Pit Stop" official rest area about 60 miles into the day. It was here that I was supposed to meet Amy, but because we'd been keeping a good tempo, she was still about 40 minutes away. We decided to get some water and push on. We also had caught up with Gayle who Matt had told to get an early start so that we could ride with him for a bit later on. We rode with Gayle for the better part of five miles and had a bit more conversation before Gayle told us to not wait for him.
Matt and I resettled into our previous tempo and I was pretty sure there were few, if any, riders in front of us. I was to the point where I shut my brain off and just rode. I didn't feel like I had any energy left, but was still taking pulls at 22 mph. I wouldn't let myself think about how tired I was, how much I hurt or how far we'd already come. I just wanted to keep the tempo up. Matt was a great encouragement telling me, "Good pull" whenever he could sense I had given about as much as I had. We were only a few miles from Pierre when Amy and the kids finally caught up with us. I told her to just head into Pierre and we'd meet up there.
We topped off the bottles, grabbed a little food and headed out for the century loop north of Pierre where we would earn the rest of our miles. Neither of us felt all that good about climbing back out of town and the first five or six miles out of town were rolling hills. I was at my limit and just polishing off an energy bar when two other riders caught up to us. I again waived Matt ahead and did what I could to maintain a tempo. They were going about four miles an hour faster than what I could conceivably hold at that point, so I just rode my own tempo and tried to keep my morale up.
By the time I was across the dam, I could see that Matt and one of the riders had shed the other rider and that I was maintaining the same tempo as the dropped man. I gauged my efforts off of him and just kept pushing. I actually made up a bit of ground on him by the time I rolled into town, but Matt and the other rider were completely out of sight. They probably finished a good three minutes ahead of me (about one mile), but I had still managed to ride a strong day and was the fourth guy in off of the century loop.
I grabbed a few pictures and exchanged information with Matt before seeking out the showers. The shower guy was farther along in his prep than he had been on Monday, but he informed me that the city had the wrong hardware for him to be able to hook up, so he was waiting for them to deliver a part to him before showers could commence. I opted to head over to the city pool to use their showers so that the fam didn't have to wait around another hour or two like they had on Monday.The pool was an interesting set up. Built over 70 years ago, the shower area was built into the hallway that leads from the locker room to the pool area. I was informed that if I didn't have a suit, I could just shut the door and shower. Once I inspected the set up, I decided to shower in my bike shorts because had anyone opened the door with me showering, I would have given them a show that no amount of therapy would ever be able to undo. At least the water was warm.
By this point my appetite had come around and we decided to find somewhere in town to grab a steak. We were planning on hitting a place that was on a flyer we had received at the campground, but when we arrived, it was obviously going to have nothing heartier than a wrap, so we went next door to the Longbranch Lounge instead. It was a dive bar, but was lacking in clientele due to the early afternoon time and the menu fit. They actually did have a kids menu and our waitress was one of the best that I have ever had anytime, anywhere. I ordered the only steak on the menu, an eight ounce sirloin with fried potatoes and texas toast. I savored each bite, wishing it was 16 ounces, but enjoying it while it lasted.
With that finished, we were back on the road. We had decided to try to get in touch with Casey and Dave (Amy's dad) to see about getting together on our way back through Mitchell since Maia's birthday plans were too early in the day for either to be able to come over to hang out. We arrived at the Pizza Ranch in Mitchell about three hours after leaving Pierre and I was already hungry again, so I attacked the buffet. We hung out at the Pizza Ranch for a couple of hours and got caught up on some conversation and had more gift time for Maia. By 7:30 I was barely hanging on, but by the time we hit the road, I was feeling up to driving to give Amy a break. She'd been behind the wheel off and on since about 10:00 that morning trying to keep the kids entertained and me supported on a long ride. I never need an excuse to love her, but she really goes above and beyond for me when she helps me out on a bike tour.
I was so thankful to have my first good day on the Tour deKota in two years. I got to work on Friday morning and was able to actually gloat a bit about what a great day I'd had. I also stopped in at the store to pick something up on Saturday and found out that Gayle had been in looking for me. With any luck, I'll get to see a few more of the folks that I connected with this year through other rides and by being "the bike guy" at Scheels.
1 comment:
I love reading about your rides. Thanks for sharing.
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