I have to say that it was much easier mounting that bike this morning knowing that we only had a 37 mile easy ride into Missoula. We did have a little bit of cool rain this morning which made me yet more thankful for the great weather we’ve had thus far. But the rain was gone by the time we kicked off around 9 AM.
The ride smoothed out as we got closer to town but we did have 1 SAG stop at mile 22 just for a quick top off of our water bottles if needed but the ride itself was pretty uneventful as the clouds broke up bringing us sunshine again. The arm warmers and light jackets were all off within the hour.
Using an easy paceline, we were out the outskirts of Missoula by 11:00 AM after which we transitioned to the bike trail system to get to our hotel. Missoula was founded as an old trading post in the 1860’s and sits in a valley carved out by glaciers. Home of the University of Montana, Missoula is the 2nd largest city in the state and it’s pretty easy to tell it’s a college town.
So we start our rest day today and I’ve already walked a few blocks to get a haircut while we wait for our rooms to be ready – and tomorrow will be a day to get laundry done and a trip to the grocery store and drug store. I expect to have a full recovery over the next day or so which will be needed as we kick back off on Monday with a 116 mile ride to Helena, the Capitol of Montana.
Another quick P2P biker profile for you is Jim, a practicing OB/GYN physician from Montana who is using his sabbatical to complete P2P. He is one of our stronger cyclists and did his residency in the state of South Carolina.