One word best describes the second leg of our trip to RC, 'grueling'. We departed Wessington Springs at 6AM into a brisk headwind that didn't let up all day, in fact it got worse as the day wore on. Our elevation change from Wess Springs to Pierre was severe, in the upward direction. And, our total mileage for the day was 103 miles. It was probably the hardest single day ride I've done, or at least a tie with day 2 on Tour De Kota 2008 (Wags knows).
The facilities and hospitality at Lutheran Memorial church in Pierre made up for the difficult time in the saddle. We were welcomed with a hearty meal of taverns, awesome potato salad and other treats that help nourish our starving bodies. We all crashed pretty early in anticipation of sleeping in a little bit as day 3 will be much shorter, registering only 35 miles. We'll need it after this day.
The most interesting thing I saw on the road today was a deer that came upon our group. There were four of us riding together, and spread out a little bit. I was in back and saw the deer coming up to the road. I started shouting a warning because I didn't think the lead rider saw the deer coming. The deer paused, sized us up, and the proceeded to bound onto the roadway. This is the moment where things could go either way. I held my breath as the deer bounded onto the roadway, passing cleanly between the lead rider and the second rider. Thankfully there was not a deer vs. bicycle accident! Quite a sight indeed.
As a side note, BlogSpot was down while we were in Pierre, so this post was a day late. I'll post day 3's ride shortly.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment