Day 22 – Sunday 15th May 2011 – Springfield IL – Tuscola IL

It was the best of days, it was the worst of days. That could comfortably be a succinct summary of today’s riding.

Despite yesterday being a rest day and luggage loading for today not scheduled until 9am, we awoke around 5am without a wakeup call or alarm. Having no need to get out of bed early, we tried to get further sleep until shortly after 7am. Getting out of bed into a very dark room suggested the weather outside was still gloomy. Opening the curtains, it was too dark to see if it was raining or not.

After breakfast at the hotel, we took our bags outside to load just before 9am. It was drizzling and cool – just 12°C – with a solid wind. With tyres refilled with air, we set off into the murk near the end of the field.

With the first two route instructions being made redundant by taking a left turn straight from the hotel, this meant all subsequent distances travelled on the route sheet were out by 1.3 miles which required some mental arithmetic to work out when to turn.

Constant steady drizzle fell for about the first 30 minutes before gradually easing to nothing. The wind was mostly across our path but had a minimal tail wind component in places. There was one short stretch of about half a mile where we turned with the wind at our back before we had to turn across it again. The countryside rolled gently and up down with no serious climbs.

The only sag for the day was lunch at 40.2 miles in the town of Mt Zion. Light drizzle returned here so we went into the Mobil station for shelter and welcome heat.

With the rain looking to set in, Patrick and I set off to complete the final 37 miles to Tuscola and were joined by USA age group National title aspirant Eric Mansfield. With a cross wind and overall rising ground, Patrick and I worked well together to cover the miles. We were generally rotating around at 18-22mph.  Eric worked briefly with us but then his puffing suggested he was in no condition to assist any further. With the drizzle setting into a solid murk and the temperature falling to 10°C, we did not want to prolong the ride any more than necessary. We had one final half mile tail wind section before turning directly into wind for 2.1 miles. This was done single file and quite slowly with poor visibility.

The odometer ticked over 77.8 miles as we reached the hotel just after 1:45pm. Our riding time had been 4hrs 18m for an average speed of 29.1km/h. This is the shortest mileage day of this trip but has had the wettest weather to date. However, riding conditions, bar visibility in places, were not uncomfortable. Except for the short into wind stretch near the end, riding was quite pleasant as it was not too hot, too cold or too windy. It was also about the third consecutive day that the big chain ring was never required – in fact, I probably only used 4 or 5 gears all day.

Once in the hotel, we cranked up the heating and availed ourselves of the hot drinks available.

The luggage van arrived around 2:30pm which meant we had to step outside into the 10°C, less wind chill factor, wet day again to unload this. As such, this was unloaded in record time so we could return to our rooms to warm up. Given the conditions, rap for tomorrow was delayed until 4:30pm followed by a discussion on riding safety. Breakfast is scheduled for 6:30am with luggage load at 7:30am for the 121 mile ride to Lebanon, Indiana, which also includes an hour forward time change.

After rap, we walked outside into the bracing weather and chose the nearest open food outlet for dinner which was Pizza Hut. Learning from previous experiences, we ordered nacho fries and one large pizza. They hit the spot just nicely.

Numbers for the day:

Departure time: 9:06am
Distance:  77.8 miles (125.2km)
Riding time: 4hrs 18m
Average speed: 18.1 mph (29.1km/h)
Maximum speed: 29.0 mph (46.7km/h)
Vertical climbing: 808ft (246m)
Temperature range: 12-10-11-10°C
Arrival time: 1:46pm
Weekly (Monday – Sunday mileage) to date: 638 miles (1,027km)
Total kilometres ridden to date / approximate kilometres to go: 3,590km / 1,987km
Rolling last seven days total kilometres ridden including today: 1,027km