We were up at 6am for the hotel breakfast. This was a basic affair of cereal, waffles, donuts, muffins, coffee and orange juice. At least two riders braved the Denny’s option across the road but despite the ABB staff confirming this with Denny’s last night, the staff this morning had no idea.
The plan for the day was to leave at 6:30am to visit the Roark Custom Titanium Bicycles factory with luggage load on our return for all riders. After yesterday’s long day, only a few riders elected to visit the factory with a number still asleep at 6:30am. The factory rep came to the hotel and picked us up at around 6:40am.
Stepping outside, it was a cool 8°C, heavily overcast but dry. The drive to the factory took about 20 minutes. Once there, we saw three complete bikes which the makers ride. As all bikes are custom made, they hold no stocks of bikes.
The factory also makes aerospace parts for the USA armed forces via sub-contracts. They had afterburners for jets and helicopters in process – none looked suitable for the ASH or Grob SL gliders!
The bike part of the factory is literally a small corner of the operation where the tubings are formed and welded as required. They only made 9 frames last year but have more orders this year.
Leaving the warmth of the factory after the tour, we walked out into persistent drizzle. Driving back to the hotel, we passed riders already on their way.
We loaded our luggage and left the hotel just before 9am as steady rain started. This continued for about 15 miles before slowly drying up. Shortly after this, the bonus miles began.
Approaching an intersection, road closed signs were in evidence. Little ABB arrows painted on the road directed us to follow the detour. We followed this before it stopped with us still off route. Stopping at a petrol station for directions, we were told to go through two sets of lights and then left. Carrying on, we saw Mike from ABB in the van so asked him. He said go down the road onto Route 38 and then right past the KFC. Two other riders joined us but one took his own route. Following Mike’s directions, we were bemused to see a group of five riders heading back towards us saying that was the wrong way. One of the riders asked a local for directions who then proceeded to cross out half the street names as incorrect! With a phone call to Mike, we retraced our path a little before finding the right road and returning on route.
After about 38 miles of riding, we reached the first sag at 34 miles on route. It turned out that some riders had ignored the road closed signs, and were lost, others had taken the detour and were still lost. A number of riders chose to take their own route to town and thus missed out on sag and lunch.
Riding on, the 4 mile route difference suddenly vanished. In the small town of Fortville, the luggage van passed us so we followed them. That was a bad mistake as they were lost. Their instructions were also wayward and we had to turn around again. The fabled Main Street was nowhere to be found so we turned down Maple Street and were soon back on track.
At about the 55 mile mark, Patrick was so impressed with the directions he threw his out the window i.e. they blew off his bike, nowhere to be seen. They had been of little value anyway but I still had mine.
We reached lunch after 70 miles of riding where the temperature had reached 11°C but the rain had started to return. With a quick lunch, we were off again with the first three or so miles downhill which was great. From there, the road sloped gently upwards in a straight line for several miles. In the deteriorating weather, I hit a pot hole large enough to eat me and the bike and a drink bottle fell out, not that I noticed.
We stopped about 15 miles out from the hotel for a quick bite to eat and a following rider returned my bottle intact.
Pushing on into the rain, the light and variable wind that was around all day tended to aid rather than hinder us. With the route sheet having one further trick up its sleeve in that it said Holiday Inn but the hotel has been renamed Quality Inn, we reached the hotel at 4:35pm, shortly after the luggage van. The last riders arrived around 6:30pm with various tales of bonus miles. Some of the earlier lost riders had taken a more direct route for only 96 miles for the day while we covered 112 miles (180.2km) in 6hrs 37m with an average speed of 27.2km/h.
With the hotel room sorted on the 2nd attempt (the first room was way off), heating was cranked up full as we warmed the room to help dry out our cycling gear.
As it ended up being another long day, rap was postponed until tomorrow morning after breakfast at 6am at the hotel. Patrick had his new back wheel re-trued at mechanics at 6pm and we then walked across the road to Red Lobster for salad, shrimp and cake.
Numbers for the day:
Departure time: 8:57am Distance: 112.0 miles (180.2km)
Riding time: 6hrs 37m
Average speed: 16.9 mph (27.2km/h)
Maximum speed: 27.6 mph (44.4km/h)
Vertical climbing: 2,106ft (642m)
Temperature range: 18 (inside) – 8 - 11 -10°C
Arrival time: 4:35pm
Weekly (Monday – Sunday mileage) to date: 234 miles (376km)
Total kilometres ridden to date / approximate kilometres to go: 3,966km / 1,622km
Rolling last seven days total kilometres ridden including today: 1,026km
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