Monday, 14 June 1999

Sunday 13th June 1999 -> Battle Mountain NV

Breakfast at just after 7am, again in the casino coffee shop and an excellent buffet, heralded the start of another fine, hot and little wind day.

I first went to a carpark with about 25 other riders for braking and emergency cornering techniques. The results of braking were interesting – front and back, front only and then back in order of effectiveness.

At just before 9am we left town. I cruised all day with the heart rate under 130. A 3.8 mile very gentle climb after about 10 miles temporarily put the HR to 140. This was followed by a downhill which was not as long as promised!

Shortly after the downhill, again on the interstate, my front wheel started “clacking.” I stopped it and found a tyre wire in it. I pulled this out and heard the air escaping. One puncture! I fixed this and then checked the back tyre. Yep, there was a tyre wire! It was short so I thought I would try and ride to the sag. It lasted about 2 miles …… I went to change this but my spare tube had worn a hole in it (XXL!) The sag passing had no long stem valve tubes so I patched one tube and got another mile or two before the patch failed. We then patched the other holed tube (which already had a couple of patches on) and tried again. This time I made it to the sag stop and completed the ride just before 1pm without any more wires!

The total ride for the day was 55.2 miles in 2hrs 57m with a maximum of 39.3moph. All of this was done at minimum effort and maximum punctures! Not a bad effort given the heat.

Scenery was again sparse – salt flats with low lying scrub with a back drop of brown hills and mountains – some with traces of snow. The sky developed into excellent looking thermals in the afternoon.

Total riding for the week was 462.6 miles (740km) in 26hrs 53m at an average of 27.5kmh-1 and max of 42.4mph (67.8kmh-1). A Jason record!

Dinner was a poorly organised affair – the place was about a mile from the motel and had insufficient tables and chairs. The food was standard – pasta, chicken, bread, salad etc. A hot walk back to the motel and we retired for the day.

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