Day 28 – Saturday 21st May 2011 – Warren OH – Dunkirk NY

Today was a stately day for what was predicted by some to be the last day of the world. We started in Ohio, rode through Pennsylvania and ended up in New York under mostly clear skies.

This morning the sky was mostly clear at 6am as we arose for breakfast. The hotel had a standard basic breakfast of cereal, yoghurt, fruit (fresh and processed), waffles, corn dogs, oatmeal, muffins, bagels, bread, coffee and hot chocolate. Cyclists appeared to be the only people indulging in this.

Patrick found his back tyre flat after having changed it last night so he had to change the tube again. With a cooler temperature of just 14°C, this proved more difficult than in yesterday’s warmth but was soon completed. After loading our luggage, we left the hotel just after 7am.

On route, we were cruising along enjoying the mild and sunny conditions. The sun was low in the sky which made visibility difficult in places. We again hit some rough patches of road and I ended up ploughing through a large pothole which shook the bike enough to throw a bottle out of one of my bottle cages. I retrieved this and carried on. The bike developed a click after this beating but the wheels appear to still run true.

We had heard the locals were not too friendly in places and this was confirmed by a sign Patrick saw that said to the effect, “Lots of dogs, Plenty of Guns.” Not a good place to ask for water I guess!

After a few miles, the Lasse train (the big Norwegian rider who has made a habit of getting lost and unique takes on life) went steaming past. Patrick wanted to jump on but I decided not to join so Patrick eased up. It turns out they were doing 27-28 mph (43-45km/h) so it was a good decision to let them go. 

We reached the first sag at 47 miles which was at an old covered bridge. The bridge was moved off the road to its current site and the land owner came out to talk to us. He said his family had donated the land the bridge now sits on.

Mike Munk, aka the wiry little man, is compiling a CD of photos of the ride for a small fee. He has spent more time taking photos than riding on this trip and we managed to capture a photo of him in his current natural habitat.

As it was a long day, we were told to relax at sag until further riders arrived otherwise we would get too far ahead and miss out on lunch. We did this and ended up on the back of the Lasse train which was then just cruising. Eventually Lasse missed a turn with another rider so we carried on.

We reached the Pennsylvania state line at 64.3 miles.

From there, it was about another 9 miles to lunch. It had warmed up to a pleasant 21°C and the sag was held outside an ice cream parlour. However, I stuck to my normal healthy diet of carrot and celery sticks (and pasta, Fanta, coke, cheese, nuts etc.)

With lunch over, we still had around 66 miles (105km) to ride to Dunkirk. Just out of lunch, a couple of local riders raced passed us. Patrick and I just rotated casually around and caught up to them. It turns out they were competing in a local 50 mile fun ride. We sat on their tails for a while and also passed other riders in the event. After one turn, we joined into a funeral procession as a policeman held back traffic as cars poured out of the church car park. We eventually rode past this and the local riders turned right into a park to complete their ride.

Riding through Erie had many turns with two town squares to be negotiated which required Right – Left – Left – Right and Left – Right turns but only at the end of the straights. We took a shortcut through one square which saved some extra turns.

A third sag was scheduled at around 100 miles and we reached this at about 105 miles just after passing another two local riders. We carried on and then reached the New York state line at 110.8 miles. The two local riders had stopped there and were turning around to go home as they were training for an ironman.

We left the sag just behind two other ABB riders that we did not want to catch up with as they tend to race. Despite our best efforts, we did catch them and the pace was then on. One of the riders wanted to reach town by 3pm while the other one bailed out to buy beer about 15 miles out from town. We did some work and some sitting in and reached the hotel at 2:55pm.

The day had seen us cover 137.4 miles (221.1km, which includes bonus miles climbing in and out of potholes), in 6hrs 58m at an average speed of 31.7km/h. The light wind aided us along the lake front (Lake Erie) but the lake itself was only seen briefly once prior to reaching the hotel.  

A large lake breeze front, with impressive tops in places, which stretched for many miles, was visible inland from the lake front for miles.

The current leader of the 52 day Cross Country Challenge (the ride I did in 1999) appeared at the hotel with drinks and snacks of fresh fruit, chicken wings, little round things with pasta and vegetables in which we had to force ourselves to eat at her insistence as she did want to take any home or throw it away.

With tomorrow being a scheduled short day, rap was delayed until 8am tomorrow with luggage load at 8:30am. Breakfast is available from 6am at the hotel.

For dinner, we wandered down the road to a Greek-American restaurant for a tasty Greek meal. I had Greek bread and moussasa – a mixture of egg plant, mince and potato along with Greek style potatoes while Patrick had a mixed dish. With the size of the servings, there was no room or need for cake.

Numbers for the day:
Departure time: 7:01am
Distance: 137.4 miles (221.1km)
Riding time: 6hrs 58m
Average speed: 19.7 mph (31.7km/h)
Maximum speed: 33.1 mph (53.3km/h)
Vertical climbing: 2,732ft (833m)
Temperature range: 14-23-21°C
Arrival time: 2:55pm
Weekly (Monday – Sunday mileage) to date: 678 miles (1,090km)
Total kilometres ridden to date / approximate kilometres to go: 4,680km / 906km
Rolling last seven days total kilometres ridden including today: 1,215km