Day 12 – Thursday 05th May 2011 – Dalhart TX – Liberal KS

The Texas chorus of train horns was constant throughout the night with the hotel not far from the train line. The hotel offered ear plugs but these were not necessary with sleep still possible.

With the ABB staff believing sunrise was at 6:35am, breakfast was at 6am at the hotel. This was standard USA hotel fare. With luggage load at 6:45am, it was still not very light outside and prior to sunrise. It was a cool 6°C as we left the hotel in the dim pre-dawn light with the wind on our nose and predictions of up to 35mph head winds. With everything being bigger in Texas, the winds had no sense of moderation after yesterday’s tailwinds and were determined to make us pay today.

At 6:53am, the sun poked above the eastern horizon as we headed northeast towards Liberal on Route 54. In the opening 10 miles, I collected a tyre wire in my front tyre to get my first puncture of the ride. The mechanic was not far away in the van with a foot pump so this was soon fixed and we were back on our way.

Despite the ride profile showing a mostly downhill ride, the net height loss for the day over the 181km was just 1,000ft. The ground rolled up and down all day and with a head wind, most of the ride felt uphill. The riders who raced yesterday struggled today with them being largely unseen. There was no opportunity to soft pedal today and the big chain ring did not even look like getting a look in – it was all small ring spinning all day.

We reached the first sag at 30.8 miles after about two hours. We were stopped about 100 metres short of this by a very long train crossing the road. After a short break, we continued to push onto into the wind and, at the 51.1 mile mark, crossed the state border into Oklahoma. This gave a brief respite from the wind before the road turned again and we returned to fighting the wind. Passing trucks and trains gave noticeable variations to the wind effect.

Huge grain silos have also started to feature in the landscape. We passed one field which I initially thought would have been more than suitable to land the ASH25M glider in but after further biking alongside it, decided probably the whole of New Zealand could fit in it – just miles of wide, open, flat space with no crops as it is early spring.

Lunch was at 71.2 miles in the small town of Guymon. From there, it was largely more cross and headwind toiling as we passed through the towns of Optima, Hooker and Tyrone before reaching the Kansas state line at 108.5 miles.

We have passed a number of variations of road kill and some have supposedly been coyotes. We have not seen a roadrunner yet! The road kill below looks like a badger.

After 6hrs 53m on the bike, we reached the hotel at 2:34pm after 181.5km of riding. The maximum speed for the day of 38.5km/h was less than yesterday’s average speed of 39.5km/h!

Route rap was at 5pm with tomorrow just a short 83 mile (133.5km) sprint to Dodge City. The winds are supposed to turn again and be at our backs. As such, breakfast is scheduled for 7am and luggage load at 8am to ensure we don’t arrive too early. Some riders are talking of targeting three hours.

For dinner, we wandered down the road and found another excellent Chinese buffet which was also very moderately priced. Like most riders, we are eating too much but it all tasted good.

Numbers for the day:

Departure time: 6:45am
Distance: 112.8 miles (181.5km)
Riding time: 6hrs 53m
Average speed: 16.4 mph (26.4km/h)
Maximum speed: 23.9mph (38.5km/h)
Vertical climbing: 1,378ft (420m)
Temperature range: 06-26°C
Arrival time: 2:34pm
Weekly (Monday – Sunday mileage) to date: 454 miles (731km)
Total kilometres ridden to date / approximate kilometres to go: 2,084km / 3,478km
Rolling last seven days total kilometres ridden including today: 1,166km