Year: 2019

148 miles (3793 ft climbing), 9:52 hours 17.4 mph

Final day of the tour was a relatively easy one, gradual climbing for the first 70 miles and then trending downwards for the rest of the day.

We had a big group pace lining to the first sag which made the time go by pretty quickly.

Bob unfortunately damaged his front wheel in a hole about 50 miles in (flat tire and damaged rim) and called it a day. Greg and I rode it in together, down one competitor for our county, river, stream, pedestrian crossing sign sprints (the rules are variable and the points don’t matter 🙂 ). Not as scenic as other days and primarily overcast with showers before lunch (which helped wash the final residues of cow shite sprayed up from from previous wet days off my bike). It’s not all glamour on the road!

Greg got a final flat 5 miles out on the bike trail into Kalispell so we quickly fixed that and then we were done just ahead of a torrential down pour.

Overall this has been a fantastic experience. Challenging and scenic riding, great support from Lon, Susan and the rest of the PacTour crew and a chance to spend the bulk of 12 days riding with good friends. 

At the end only 3 of us rode every bit of the course; myself, Frode and Steve. Our reward, in addition to incredible memories … we’re now qualified for an even tougher ride, RAAM. (I’ve no plan to do that)

134 miles (3271 ft climbing), 8:39 hours 18.5 mph

Today was a shorter day. There’s no guarantee on that being any easier on this tour but weather conditions were favorable and we ended up making good time with an initial climb to mile 40 and then all trending downhill after that for the remainder of the day. Despite some threatening clouds we managed to dodge any rain.

Our usual pattern emerged of arriving close to the front at the initial sag stops and then departing after everyone else and having a stream of people up the road to chase down. Some good stretches of fast pace lining by the three of us with 1 mile pulls for each rotation.

We eased off a bit to ride with a larger group leading into lunch and into the finish and had another good stretch of fast riding along I90 to get the freeway miles over with quickly. 

It’s great to get in earlier to our overnight to have a bit more downtime and recovery ahead of the last day of the tour tomorrow. Only 150 miles to go!

158 miles (6260 ft climbing), 11:09 hours 17 mph

I bounced back after yesterday thanks to Alka Seltzer cold formula, a good night’s sleep and DayQuil every 4 hours during the day today. My cold is still here but my energy levels were much better and I got through the day feeling pretty good.

We started of (sans Greg due to some confusion as to whether he was taking the day off or not). We woke him for breakfast but he thought we were rolling at 7am rather than 6:30am so when he eventually reemerged from his room everyone had left! We finally reconnected at the lunch stop later in the day.

The morning was stunning riding, 80 miles of trending downhill with misty vistas of mountains, “earthquake” lake and forests. Unfortunately I have no photos of it because it was cold and I wasn’t taking my long finger gloves off or losing contact with the group we were riding with. Still the memories will suffice.

We hit the first sag with the group we were riding with and then pottered around for a bit to find that everyone else had left. Bob and I then set off in pursuit and, reminiscent of Furnace Creek 508 when we had a never-ending string of rabbits with tail lights to chase down, kept a decent tempo going to gradually catch the scattered stream of people ahead of us.

There was a decent climb before lunch and then Greg arrived just as we were finishing up so we waited for him to eat and then rolled in together. A lot of people are only riding part of each day now it seems so we ended up being the last group on the road. We got in to Butte just ahead of a thunderstorm (thankfully) and early enough for me to get another massage for my legs to keep them “fresh” for the last two days.

135 miles (6400 ft climbing), 10:25 hours 15.5 mph

The day started off great with all three of us on the road again after Bob’s missed the last couple of days due to sickness. It was straight into a beast of a climb up Teton Pass on a protected old road bikeway. Great climb through the trees at 8-12% for the best part of an hour.

Then there was a long downhill and a chance to ride for most of the morning beside the Teton mountain range enjoying the views. We battled some side and head winds for a couple hours but then turned out of them for most of the rest of the day. 

My day went south from about midday as a nasty head cold that has been doing the rounds started to settle in and drained me of all energy. Bob and Greg dragged me along for the afternoon and we got to West Yellowstone at a reasonable time (~5:25) for me to stock up on Dayquil to hopefully get me through tomorrow. It’s daunting as if I felt this bad at home I’d be spending the day in bed. Instead I’m facing 159 hilly miles of riding.

214 miles (5968 ft climbing), 12:47 hours 18.6 mph

Fine day of riding today, the closest to a ‘recovery day” you get on a tour like this. Greg and I rode with a great group of people all day in pleasant conditions i.e. no snow, sleet, headwinds etc.. and only a moderate amount of climbing. It was just what I needed after yesterday’s epic effort.

Bob sat out the day and drove along the route with Lon, showing up at various sag stops and our lunch stop. He should be back on the bike tomorrow for at least some of the day.

I was worried going into today as on paper it could have been a tough one to finish in daylight but all turned out great. Still on EFI (“Every F…g inch”) status with 2 other guys going into the last four days.