All cyclists hate rain and almost all cyclists hate wind – and today we got yet another big dose of both. Throw in some not so great road conditions and 2 “bridge out” detours and it makes for a long 122 mile and 8 hours in the saddle day – but it was great! Hard? Yes – but that’s what we’re here for!
Given the distance to cover today, we had an early start of things with a 7:15 AM roll out. With breakfast not being served at the Holiday Inn Express until 6:30 it was going to be tight. But, since our hotel was right next to a Denny’s, and because I am growing a little weary of consuming powdered eggs and microwaved breakfast meats, I made the short trek for a real breakfast at 6 AM and was ready to go with time to spare.
Today’s route is the 2nd longest of P2P at 120 miles, but the elevation profile is fairly manageable with just about 2,000 feet of elevation gain. After 4-5 miles on the road , however, mother nature let us know that she had other plans for us today as the rain kicked in. The rain itself wasn’t really heavy with the exception of maybe a total 15-20 minutes all day, but it was just constant for probably 6 hours until about 1:30 PM this afternoon. We didn’t ride on dry pavement until maybe mile 105 or so and again we had the wind roar in our ears for the entire day, just from different directions as we zig-zagged our way to Ohio.
With SAG stops at mile 17 and 38.5, we had lunch at mile 58.5 in the town of Brooklyn, MI as I recall, but we did have a proper bathroom to use. We had all used the “green latrine” at the earlier SAG stops. Since it was 70 degrees this morning when we started, I was just wearing my jersey and arm warmers and had my super light rain/wind jacket stuffed into the middle back pocket of my jersey – it stayed there all day and the arm warmers came off before the mile 17 stop. Did I get wet? Of course I did, but when you’re moving on a bike, you also get dry pretty quickly when the rain abates. If it were in the low-60’s, I probably would have been wearing that rain jacket – and be hoping that I wouldn’t sweat too much!
Over the course of the day, we had 2 “bridge out” detours and a couple of other short ones due to road repairs. Hey, this is the Midwest where they have but 2 seasons – Winter and Construction. Our guides told us weeks ago to expect this and they were right – and they did a great job routing us around these areas on the fly. At mile 86.5, we crossed the border into our 10th state – Ohio. The road we were on didn’t even have a sign signifying the change – it was marked only with a small granite obelisk and a slightly different hue of pavement. Otherwise, I would have taken a picture!
It wasn’t until around the mile 101 SAG stop that I began to feel the effects of the wind and rain and 7 hours in the saddle at that point, but after getting some electrolytes and downing a granola bar and a banana, I was ready reel in those last 20 miles. It also helped that my friend Greg, one of our stronger riders, wanted to take the lead dog role and do the pull the rest of the way to the Hampton Inn in Rossford – it was a big help. We all rolled in to the hotel at about 4 PM with smiles of satisfaction and bodies covered with road grime and sweat that gave us all a rather pungent and sweet aroma as we walked into the post ride recovery room. It was a great day and I enjoyed every minute of it! With a Chipotle catered dinner at 6 pm, we didn’t hang around long to trade our stories for the day – it’s time to get some rest!