Wednesday 13 July 2011

Day 41: Little bike on the prairie

Day 41
Eads to Pueblo 113miles

What an amazing day. Set a new, huge, PB in terms of longest mileage in a day. And just a fantastic days riding.

Set off early, and conditions were pretty much perfect. If there was any wind, it was maybe just helping me. But any wind there was was very light.

My most conservative route plan, devised about a week ago, had me doing 60ish miles and then arriving in Pueblo tomorrow. I had also drawn up a more taxing one which involved doing about 150miles to Canon City (its pronounced Canyon!) in two days, with a roughly equal split in terms of distance.

But with conditions pretty much perfect, I just decided to carry on and maybe try to reach three figures (or triple digits as Americans would call it).

The road was very flat, and some of the scenery stunning. One of the consequences of my constant uphill sloping roads of previous days is that my horizon is always artificially shortened – I only ever see maybe a mile up the road to the top of the next little climb. But at one point today I crossed over a ridge and before me the prairie fell away and I could see for miles. It was like the whole world had opened up in front of me and was inviting me to come and see it.

With riding conditions so good, I also made sure to stop my GPS watch each time I stopped for photos, buying drinks etc. I wanted to get an idea of how fast I could keep my bike moving. Overall for the day I averaged over 17mph. Pretty good I reckon.

The miles just seemed to fly by – by just gone 10am I had already reached the place at around 60miles. Stopped for a quick drink and a cookie and then back out again. By now I had already decided I was going to push all the way to Pueblo. With a lot of the rest of the trip being in the mountains, I probably wont get another chance to put up a big score on such flat terrain.

Also saw a few animals for the first time. The first one actually helped me to ride faster. I almost ran over a live snake (seen plenty of dead ones so far!) so decided to quickly get away from him. Didnt really think stopping and taking a close up photo would be a wise move on an empty highway! Also saw my first bison today. I've liked these guys ever since going to Yellowstone last year (I'm hoping to see plenty more when I get there this year) so stopped and took a few photos.

Also saw some meerkats (simples!) on the road into Pueblo.

The 100miles came up in the not exactly scenic setting of a large highway on the outskirts of Pueblo. Route 96 joined a much busier road for a while, so I was stuck riding the shoulder. It was also on this road that I saw my only east bound rider. We waved, but I think both of us realised it wasnt a sensible road to stop and have a chat on! Dont reckon I'll see many more now – most will probably be over the halfway point now.

Got recommended a bar in town that did $1 drinks at happy hour, so went there for a couple and then grabbed some dinner. By getting through the last map section so quickly, I havent actually had a chance to plan my likely stops for the next week or so. Probably do a bit of that later and just relax after a great days riding.

2 comments:

  1. Wow you did great today! Hope the weather treats you good.
    Stephanie and Jerry

    ReplyDelete
  2. CEEU is following you (team meeting this afternoon). Well done, you're doing great and sounds like fun??
    Best wishes
    Rhona

    ReplyDelete