An orange glow made its way through the curtains this morning which showed the rain had moved off and the sun was shining under a clear sky. The strong northerly wind predicted was also evident.
We had breakfast at the hotel at 6:30am which consisted of the usual hotel fare – yoghurt, cereals, cinnamon rolls, eggs, sausages, biscuits & gravy, muffins, orange juice, oatmeal, hot chocolate and coffee. Breakfasts on this tour are like flash mobs – in, eat, blink and they are gone. The hotel staff normally struggle to keep up with demand and any other guests must wonder what they have hit. This morning, one of the ABB staff arrived 3 minutes later and was greeted with mostly empty dishes to choose from. Five minutes later, they were all full and the breakfast room was almost empty.
Luggage load was at 7:30am with a brisk 9°C air temperature. This was not overly cold and much warmer than a typical Hawkes Bay frost.
Heading out from the hotel just after 7:30am, we turned left onto one of the many small country roads that criss cross the landscape. This sloped gently upwards initially and was directly into the 20mph northerly wind. As such, we were crawling along at 10-15mph and this stretch lasted to 14.2 miles where we turned to a 5 mile cross wind stretch. We joined up with three other riders as we fought the wind.
Riding on, we passed through the towns of Dover and Homer before eventually reaching the first sag at 44 miles. Unfortunately there was no welcome to Homer sign or giant donuts to greet us.
With another 40 miles to lunch, Patrick and I continued on and reached the Indiana State line at 61.6 miles. We took photos of both the Welcome to Illinois (missing after our barge crossing of the Mississippi) and the Welcome to Indiana signs. One of the batteries in Patrick’s camera fell into the long grass which almost prevented the Indiana photos but some scrounging in the grass soon found it. We later were told someone supposedly lost an i-phone there last year. There was also a prison just on the Illinois side of the state line.
The road was rarely straight and every fraction of a turn determined whether the wind would help or hinder us. As we were now travelling mostly east, we did manage to get a small tailwind component at times which was appreciated.
After fighting the wind for 7hrs 21m, we reached the hotel at 4:42pm local time after covering 196.0km at an average speed of 26.7km/h. The temperature had peaked at 20°C during the day but had started to fall as we approached town.
Rap had been scheduled for 5pm as today was, on paper, an easy day. However, as we arrived just before this time and the luggage after this, it was postponed until tomorrow morning. The last rider arrived around 6:30pm. Tomorrow morning breakfast is at 6am followed by a visit to the Roark bicycle factory at 6:30am with luggage load scheduled for around 8:15am.
After a full day at the office on the bike, we again chose the first eating place we came to for dinner. This was a Denny’s restaurant but the service was extremely slow. We eventually had a milkshake, steak & shrimps and carrot cake.
Numbers for the day:
Departure time: 7:32am
Distance: 121.8 miles (196.0km)
Riding time: 7hrs 21m
Average speed: 16.6mph (26.7km/h)
Maximum speed: 34.0mph (54.7km/h)
Vertical climbing: 2,789ft (850m)
Temperature range: 9-20-17°C
Arrival time: 4:42pm local time (one hour time change)
Weekly (Monday – Sunday mileage) to date: 122 miles (196km)
Total kilometres ridden to date / approximate kilometres to go: 3,786km / 1,792km
Rolling last seven days total kilometres ridden including today: 1,047km
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