A windy day on a lonely road – Day 55

I would first like to congratulate Cam on his excellent skill of predicting the final results of this year’s Tour de France. All four of his predictions in our competition were correct. He really knows his cycling! Or it just goes to show how much of a nerd he is. You take your pick.

As usual anytime we make the comment that the day should be a fairly easy day, it comes to bite us in the butt big time! Today we were to ride 70 miles to the next town of Austin, NV. There were three climbs with two of them having substantial height.

We left Eureka after watching the individual time trial of the tour. It started out to be a pretty good day. The temperature was a bit toasty, but besides that it was an enjoyable ride. That was until about 18 miles in when the wind started.

For the next 40 miles we battled a headwind that just never gave us a break. Pedaling into it head on completely exhausted us mentally and physically. Why is it that people only mention things about the wind in Kansas? The wind in Nevada has been just as bad! Ironically as we got to the base of the climbs the wind died down. However without the wind to cool you off, it also got extremely hot climbing up the mountains.

After the third summit there was an amazingly fun descent into town for a couple of miles. It was an average of 6-7% with lots of switchbacks. The turns were tight and were lots of fun leaning into in order to make them without running off the road.

Tomorrow will be a long day. The route takes us 110 miles into Fallon, NV. Fallon is the end of our second to last map. So after tomorrow we will only have one map left!

The loneliness of this road is not for everyone apparently.