Day 40: 50 Miles

Scott City, KS to Horace, KS

Another day in Kansas with strong winds and high temperatures. I got up early and was on the road by 6:45. This was not as early as yesterday, but still much earlier than I’ve been used to. The winds changed direction over night which helped a little. There still wasn’t a tailwind, but the wind was hurting less than yesterday.

I’ve been traveling on route 96 for the last few days and will continue to do so until I hit Pueblo, Colorado. This makes directions for the day really easy. I get on the road, pedal until I’m tired, and then stop. A few miles into the day I saw a cyclist traveling in the opposite direction. He was part of the Trans Am Bike Race. These cyclists are doing the exact same route as me, but started on the west coast and are heading east. While these cyclists are travelling the same route, they are doing it at a completely different pace and level of effort. The record for the race is 17 days 16 hours. That works out to averaging almost 250 miles per day. Right now I am averaging 53.5 miles per day. I was a bit envious of the setups that the racers had for their bikes. They really aren’t carrying anything with them because they rarely stop to do anything other than sleep for a few hours and eat some food. This allows them to use bikes more similar to a triathlon or road bike. Over the course of the morning I saw 3 racers in total. It’s amazing how close they are to each other given they’ve been racing for over 9 days. There is a documentary on Netflix called Inspired to Ride that covered the 2014 race which is very good and worth checking out if you are looking for more information.

The riding today was much like yesterday. The scenery in Kansas has all looked the same for awhile. It was encouraging to see the sign towards the end of my ride that I had entered the mountain time zone. For some odd reason there are 3 counties in Kansas on mountain time, while the rest of the state is in central time. I didn’t think I’d be changing time zones until I got to Colorado, so the time zone change was a nice surprise. I reached my stopping point in Tribune, KS at 10:45 AM local time. Getting up early, averaging 11 mph (compared to yesterday’s 8.6 mph) and changing time zones had me way ahead of schedule. There wasn’t much in the town of Tribune though. I grabbed some lunch and then headed over to the town park where I could potentially camp for free. It didn’t look like a great spot and since it was supposed to get back to the high 90s, I started looking for a place to stay indoors. Luckily I ran into Bill and Mike who had found a place 2 miles away. Bill and Mike were part of the large group that all came together a few days ago. They stayed at a motel while 5 of us were camping. They gave me the information for Barrel Springs Hunt Club. I’m not exactly sure what a hunt club is, but they offered a small room with a bathroom and a large common room with a TV and couches. It’s more than I could have hoped for. Mark and Patty who are riding a tandem are also staying here tonight. They were also part of the large group from a few days ago. It seems I’ve switched from the younger group to the older group for tonight. I think a couple of the other guys biked ahead today. I decided against this because it setup for either a really short day or really long day tomorrow, which isn’t ideal. Tomorrow I’ll finally get out of Kansas and into Colorado which I am very much looking forward to. It should be a 56 mile ride to Eads, Colorado. It’s going to be another early day though, as I have to try and beat the heat and winds once again.