Despite the overnight low being predicted to be just 37°F (3°C), by the time we went to breakfast just after 6am, it was much warmer. After a solid standard breakfast at the hotel, including cook your own waffles which Patrick sampled and pancakes, we were on the road just prior to 7am with an air temperature of 14°C. It was again fine and sunny with little initial wind.
In the carpark at luggage load was a tour bus. The evening before a rider had asked at reception if he had a quiet room. The staff member said he should have as a bus load of senior citizens were staying the night. I wonder if the seniors were told they were sharing the hotel with 20 odd (pun intended) bikers??
Out on the road, a large group of us were riding together through the opening two turns and mile or so. As soon as the road began to rise, this group shattered with just Patrick, myself and one other rider staying together. A couple of other later starting riders raced past us but with 170 odd kilometres to go, we let them race off and passed some of them back soon afterwards.
At the 15.6 mile mark, we had an “informal” sag stop at a church as the minister is a relation of one of the bike company tour staff. We were well fed and watered.
While Europe may have its cobbles, the USA has rough roads which are just as jarring, leg sapping and challenging to ride. While some of the roads are smooth black top, parts of the interstate shoulders are constantly rough and covered in blown truck tyres and wire beading.
Heading into the town of Flagstaff, new smooth blacktop was being laid and we were instructed to ride on the left hand side of the road. That was not a problem! We reached the lunch stop in town at 47.4 miles after about three hours of riding.
After lunch, the route took us through the Northern Arizona University campus. There were a number of turns and intersections and combined with student and other traffic, we were on campus almost long enough to attend classes and earn a PhD each!
After we graduated from the university campus, we were briefly on the old Route 66 before joining the I-40E (the interstate freeway.) This rolled up and down but mostly downhill and a variable wind helped rather than hindered us. Patrick punctured his front tyre due to one of the pesky wires and the new tube left the tyre with a distinct non-circular shape. After checking at the hotel, this was diagnosed as a defective tyre and replaced.
Riding along the freeway, we cruised up a reasonably steep rise at over 40km/h as we passed a sign saying were passing 6,000ft of elevation. The big chain ring was well worked but only ever down to about the 53:14. In the closing miles, a vehicle towing a Cobra glider trailer raced past us along the freeway.
We arrived at the Econolodge Hotel in Winslow just after 2:30pm. The luggage van arrived about an hour later. Winslow appears to be a rundown town with a closed down shopping centre next to the hotel. Various other areas in town we passed also looked well past their best.
Details of tomorrow’s 134 mile ride to Gallup in New Mexico will be given out at 6:45am tomorrow morning. This ride will see us complete over 1,000km in the first six days of riding.
Numbers for the day:
Departure time: 6:59am Distance: 108.9 miles (175.2km)
Riding time: 6hrs 11m
Average speed: 17.6mph (28.3km/h)
Maximum speed: 42.5mph (68.4km/h)
Vertical climbing: 5,758ft (1,755m)
Temperature: 14-20-14-32°C
Arrival time: 2:35pm
Weekly (Monday – Sunday mileage) to date: 458.7 miles (738.0km)
Total kilometres ridden to date / approximate kilometres to go: 919km / 4,644km
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