Day 4 – Wednesday 27th April 2011 – Wickenberg - Cottonwood AZ

This morning we were up at 5:20am for a 5:30am breakfast and route details at the restaurant across the road from the hotel. They served every one with a standard cooked breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon, hash browns and meat patties. This meant service was surprisingly quick and efficient.

With an early start, we knew the day was going to be hard despite it only being officially 102 miles on the road. As the route sheet was run through, it quickly became evident why – 8,750ft of climbing (around the equivalent of seven Te Mata Peak climbs) was included and the first sag, and lunch, was scheduled at just 42.7 miles. However, the weather was again fine and dry but cooler than the previous two days at just 14°C. After loading our luggage, we hit the road just after  6:30am.

Almost immediately, the road began to rise. At the same time, our luck with the wind ran out and it began to blow across the road or into our faces. As such, the pace was very slow. A six mile climb of 3,000ft (about 2.5 Te Mata Peak climbs) was made even more challenging by the wind howling straight into our faces. My 25 tooth small chain ring was well polished on this climb.

Continuing on, the road rose largely unrelentingly until the sag and lunch stop at 42.7 miles. With the wind, this took us over 3.5 hours to cover this distance but we were still one of the first five or so riders to reach that point. It was gratifying to hear a number of other riders state that it was the hardest 40 miles they had ever ridden.

Back on the road, it continued to climb for a further 3 miles or so until finally giving some brief descents only to be followed by further climbing. This continued until the town of Prescott where a few miles of largely downhill were enjoyed. Entering the town, one building was boldly marked “Run Amok” and in smaller letters “Child Care Centre” with the ubiquitous gun shop further down the road.

The 2^nd sag stop was at 72 miles which left a further 10 mile or so climb with a long descent promised. Again my 25 tooth chain ring was well polished as I climbed to the 7,023 feet high peak up Mount Mingus.

From there, it was largely downhill but the road varied from extremely rough with hairpin turns to straight and smoother road. As such, it was not safe to really wind up the pace but the speedo still read a maximum of 65.9mph (106km/h) which was clearly incorrect. Stray radio waves must have affected it again. On the way down, we passed through the town of Jerome which is a little like a French mountain village – it is perched on the hill side with very narrow streets.

Once lower down, the last four miles into Cottonwood were again downhill and tailwind. The temperature had risen to 26°C and the sky was still blue. We arrived into the hotel at just after 3pm and had to wait for the luggage van. The hotel had set up buckets and rags to clean the bikes so I cleaned days of accumulated grime from mine.

For dinner we went to good Chinese all you can eat buffet which had a wide range of Chinese food and also sushi and desserts. As we returned to the hotel around 5:30pm, another two riders had just completed the day’s riding.

Route maps for tomorrow were given out at 6:30pm and tomorrow’s ride to Winslow at 107 miles shows about the first 40 miles of climbing before rolling largely downhill. With breakfast scheduled at 6am at the hotel and luggage load at 7am, the day would appear to be easier than today. Hopefully the winds are at our back.

Numbers for the day:

Departure time: 6:33am
Distance:  104.0 miles (167.3km)
Riding time: 7hrs 35m
Average speed: 13.7mph (22.1km/h)
Maximum speed: 65.9mph (106km/h) - but not correct! – more like 50mph / 80km/h
Vertical climbing: 8,645ft (2,636m)
Temperature: 14-26°C
Arrival time: 3:06pm
Weekly (Monday – Sunday mileage) to date: 349.8 miles (562.8km)
Total kilometres ridden to date / approximate kilometres to go: 743km / 4,819km