Last Big Ride

 Today I walked out of the hotel with the most nervous excited feeling in the pit of my stomach. I knew we had a tough day of riding ahead, lots of climbing, lots of heat, but knowing I was going to make it. And knowing this dream had been realized.

The timing was perfect. I’m out of electrolyte drink. I’m out of my energy bars. I’m out of my sunscreen. I don’t have any clean clothes left.   And most importantly, we’ve run out of country to our east.

After a calm and cool 10 miles to start the day, the climb started.  We went up some pretty steep slopes, including one that was almost as hard as the big climb yesterday. Not nearly so long, but it felt a good bit steeper.

I think I didn’t have enough to drink yesterday, or didn’t do a good job of replacing my electrolytes. Because my legs felt really crampy to start. And that is not a good thing when you’re pushing heavy gears up really steep slopes. I think adrenaline did a good bit of the work.… all of the aches and pains I was having earlier in the day, started to fade as the road got harder and harder.

  

Two state lines, New Hampshire and into Massachusetts.

Thankfully, a lot of the ride was along heavily tree lined roads, so we had a good bit of shade. Because when we were in full sunlight, my goodness it was hot.  When we finished, the heat index was 104. And the heat baking off the fresh black asphalt was much much hotter than that.

I rode today with flowers from a larger bouquet tucked into my Camelback.  

One of our best riders, Carol, a fantastic triathlete and cyclist and just a great person, lost her husband to cancer one year ago today. So we all rode with flowers tucked into our helmets or jerseys or packs to support her.  

For the first time in seven weeks, my daily routine has totally changed. I didn’t wash my cycling kit. I didn’t have a protein bar to help my muscles recover. I’m not worried about hydrating. I’m not going to over eat and stuff as many calories in my face as I can to get ready for tomorrow’s ride.  I’m just going to spend the evening with a group of the best people you could’ve chosen to spend all this time riding across the country together.

Tomorrow morning we ride to the beach.  And hug and dance and wonder at what we’ve all just done together. 

And then…

And now your 2024 right across America most valuable gear countdown

#1  Garmin Varia rear facing radar

This thing was a literal lifesaver. It catches vehicle traffic behind you and displays it on your bike computer screen. There’s a little strip on the left of the screen that shows green if there’s no traffic, orange if someone’s coming and red if someone’s coming really fast. And it also shows a little icons of where cars are in relation to you.

We spent a lot of time on roads in which cars would come up unexpectedly on our left. You don’t have to get startled by a car too many times to realize that could be really dangerous.  This thing gives you a timely warning of what’s behind you.

Even more importantly, we would have situations where we simply couldn’t be riding on the shoulder consistently because there was debris or broken pavement. And so you have to make a quick decision to take the right most part of the right traffic lane. The problem is while you’re looking over your shoulder to see if that’s OK, you’re not looking at the debris and broken pavement right in front of you. And if you’re moving 20 miles an hour, you have a very short decision window.  So the radar lets you know if moving into the lane is an option, you double check, visually, but you’ve got some confidence that you know what’s going on.

Also it has a high viz flashing red light to increase the likelihood a car sees you and excellent battery life.

Tanya bought this for me last Father’s Day and I wasn’t all that into using it around town. But now I wouldn’t go anywhere without it. Which makes it our number one most valuable gear .