Saturday, May 29, 2010

Day 13 - St. Louis, Missouri to Effingham, Illinois

Today we toured St. Louis, cruising the Mississippi shoreline and the Gateway Arch. The river is very high, crews are still cleaning the roads and trails near the river.

The cue sheet was five pages long today, much of it getting us through St. Louis. We did a photo op at the Arch and another in the middle of the bike bridge crossing the Mississippi. After that it was off through the Illinois countryside for a 144 mile jaunt.

Issues were fairly minimal. Jon Batek had a flat and he and Lynn got off route for 11 extra miles. Randy also had a flat, but overall things went pretty well. It was warm and a little muggy, with an annoying head/cross wind from the north all day.

In Illinois the roads were generally very quiet, with some roll, and a few little grinders. A paceline was the best way to get through the day. At various times our group included Randy, Len, Gene, the tandem team of Jim and Lara, and a couple of others that floated in and out. John Newton said what a lot of us are feeling – ‘My legs feel like they have 2,000 miles on them in the past two weeks. Len rode today, for the first time since leaving the tour a week ago. He did well, probably as much from his pent up energy and joy at being back on his bike, as compared to us worn down veterans.

Very tired, fell asleep. I will do a more complete write up tomorrow

2 comments:

  1. Hey Rob,

    If you had hung a left at the Mississippi you would be on your way home now! You and your bike buddies are amazing. You guys will be out east before you know it!

    Meg

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  2. You're down to virtually your last 1200k. You know how to ride those for sure. You'll begin to be able to smell the barn.

    You're totally awesome!!

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