Day 41: 55 Miles

Horace, KS to Eads, CO

The last few days have been a real struggle, so I was extremely happy to get on the road this morning and find that the wind was not that strong and the temperature was cool.  I started riding just before 7:00 and it was only 16 miles to the Colorado border. I don’t know if I was happier to make it to Colorado or to get out of Kansas.

I was of course the last person to leave this morning. Last night I stayed up to watch game 5 of the NBA finals. Being on mountain time is great to watch sports because the game was over by 9:45. I knew it wasn’t going to heat up as much today, so I wasn’t concerned about getting on the road a little later than everyone else. I ended up staying at the same place as the 4 older people from the group of 9 that all came together a few days ago. Matt and Joe got to the end point early yesterday and decided to push on. Having looked ahead I knew this would not setup well for the next couple of days in terms of services and towns to stop at. I’ll try to catch them again when it makes sense.

The Trans Am racers are still passing in the opposite direction and will continue to do so for several days. About 5 miles into my ride I saw the first of the racers coming in the opposite direction. Most touring cyclists will stop and chat or at least wave and say hello, but I’ve found the racers stay very focused on what they are doing. When the next guy came by about 30 minutes later, I let him know how far ahead the guy in front of him was. He said thanks, which is the most conversation I’ve gotten out of any of the racers.

At mile 16 I finally made it to Colorado. I took the picture of my bike in front of the Colorado sign, but almost stopped to take another one in front of the sign saying I was leaving Kansas. Kansas started out great, but the winds wore me down and the towns in western Kansas were so small that there weren’t many places for food or services along the road. Kansas was also not as flat as I thought it would be. I entered Kansas at an elevation of 800 feet and left Kansas at an elevation of almost 4,000 feet. This is higher than any point in Pennsylvania. Eastern Colorado will look very similar to Kansas, but I’m only a few days away from the mountains where the real climbing begins.

The only place to stop on today’s route was Sheridan Lake, CO. There was a small convenience store where I stopped to grab another Gatorade to get me through the second half of the day. I walked in and one of the racers was also there buying some food. He introduced himself as Max and I found out later he is just 24 years old. Most of the guys in the lead group are in their mid 30s or early 40s so it was impressive that he was in 10^th place and not far behind. I gave him a quick recap of how many racers I had seen today and how far ahead they were. I guess he’s been bunched up with 6 riders for awhile. He was just starting out for the day and didn’t seem to be in a huge rush. I asked him how he decided to do this race, rather than just ride the route like most people do. He had done a portion of the Trans Am last year and saw some racers which got him interested. He then saw the documentary on Netflix that I mentioned yesterday and was inspired to sign up and do it. I can’t imagine riding like these racers are, but it was interesting to learn a little bit about one person’s motivation. Max also said that his sister was doing the race so now I’ve got a family of racers to root for.

After my break, I had 28 more miles to go. The winds were still not a problem and I was averaging 12.3 mph through 42 miles. In the last 13 miles the wind picked up and the road started to average somewhere between a 1% and 2% grade. The morning had been so nice that I didn’t even mind. I’ve gotten used to 30 miles stretches with a headwind so 13 miles wasn’t bad. I finished up right around 12:30 and checked into the motel in Eads, CO. Having a good ride today definitely gave me a boost and I’m looking forward to seeing the surroundings start to change in the next few days.

After resting for a bit, I took a walk into town and found there wasn’t much there. They seem to be doing some renovations on the main street, but everything looked closed. I found a small grocery store to pick up some food for breakfast and went to the bank to take out some cash. I’ve run into a few situations where places only accept cash and I was literally down to my last dollar. I think there is only one restaurant in town that is open, so that’s where I’ll be eating tonight. Tomorrow I’ll continue to push into Colorado.