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Lon's Description: Back into the hills of Missouri.
The pavement of roller coaster roads was laid over anything in
it's path. In the town Lebanon, we stay at the historic Munger
Moss Motel. The motel is famous from Route 66 days as the place
to stay in the Ozarks. Red brick buildings outline a courtyard
and a drained swimming pool. The rooms are old but clean.
A motel classic lobby is also a toy museum.
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Today we left the winds of Kansas for the rolling hills of Missouri
(which I have decided must be an Indian word that means "Many Hills").
The temperature was in the high 50's all day, and a light rain
started shortly after we departed and continued essentially all
day. The continuous rolling hills quickly wore us down, as the
cumulative effect of riding long miles every day is taking it's
toll. The cold temperatures and rain also added to the difficulty
of this day. The terrain in this part of our country is very scenic,
and most of our routes are on back roads with very little traffic.
Our route today was from Pittsburgh, Kansas to Lebanon, Missouri, a
distance of 152 miles. Our destination was the Munger Moss Motel,
which has some historic significance as it is on old Route 66,
which we rode on for the latter part of this day.
We knew we would have to dig very deep today with 140 miles and 6,300 Feet of Climbing. After the past 4 days of Howling Wind in Kansas, we were very tired even at the start of this day. It was cold and dark when we left Pittsburg at 7:00 A.M. and was cloudy, rainy, and cold all day with basically headwinds again. And then there were the roller hills. At least 100 of them. They just came coming at us ... over and over again. A hard day on our equipment for sure: shifting hundreds of times from our 53x11's right up the cog set and oftentimes into our small rings and large cogs by the time we were up the other side. At the last Rest Stop, Mike and Nancy Myers on the tandem said, "Riding rollers is all about momentum and proper shifting." They should know ... the live in Baxter Springs, near here, and used this area for training in preparation for Paris-Brest-Paris last year. The Myers really crank into those rollers for sure. The bad news: because of the wind and rain, we were unable to hook onto the tandem for any help with these rolling hills. Chuck loves Rollercoasters and the rollers remind him of riding rollercoasters with the big lift hill, down the fast descent, and with a little luck (and a lot of work) the chance of getting up the next hill with still some momentum. Since it was raining today, Ken did not take the Digital Camera on the bike so we don't have any photos to share. Chuck took some shots on his analog camera which he'll scan into this page after the PAC Tour is over. |
| Estimated Distance: | 140 Miles |
| Actual Distance: | 140.6 Miles |
| Cumulative Actual Distance: |
1,935 Miles This includes the following off course added miles: San Diego - 2.0 Miles when Chuck and Bob Harting missed a turn Winslow - 4.7 Miles when Chuck, Ken, and Les Drake went to the mural painting after the ride Pagosa Springs - 3.1 Miles when Chuck missed Lunch Alamosa - 11.2 Miles when Chuck missed the turn for Lunch |
| Estimated Feet of Climbing: | 6,500 Feet |
| Actual Feet of Climbing: | 5,120 Feet (And that was plenty!!) |
| Cumulative Feet of Climbing: | 54,900 Feet |
| Elevation of Destination: | 1,530 Feet |
| Average Speed on the Bike: |
14.6 MPH |
| Maximum Speed on the Bike: | 39.0 MPH (A great roller!!) |
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Chuck's Heart Rate Data: Max Heart Rate was 196 BPM a few weeks ago before PAC Tour |
Time above 150: 0:01 Time between 130-150: 5:29 Time below 130: 4:43 |
| Dairy Queen Count: |
1 Blythe, CA 2 Twister's Ice Cream in Williams, AZ 3 Dairy Queen in Cortez, Colorado was phenomenal 4 Dairy Queen in Monte Vista, Colorado (PAC Tour Hot Fudge Banana Split: Bananas, 3 Scoops Ice Cream, Hot Fudge on Side: Awesome!!) 5 Dairy Queen in Pratt, Kansas 6 Dairy Queen in Winfield, Kansas - PAC Tour Hot Fudge Banana Split |
| Highlights: |
A brutally hard day of cycling with rollers that just kept
coming at us in cold and rainy conditions.
I remember riding rollers in Iowa with my good cycling buddy Bob Rose in 1989. I learned a lot about how to ride them 11 years ago in the Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI). It seems that PAC Tour brought rain to Missouri. Kansas and Missouri had no rain since Mid-July and so we brought some much needed rain with us. At about mile 50, Chuck and Les Drake were riding near each other when we noticed a "foggy" valley up ahead in the rain. As we torqued up the roller, we nearly choked to death as we quickly were disappointed to find that the "fog" was really "smoke" from a huge trash bonfire that the homeowner had out in front of his house. A junkyard dog was waiting to chase each of us as we came into Lebanon. He was mean and very scary looking. We came across many of these today and each would get us rolling at 22-25 MPH in a sprint. At the finish, it was getting dark and very cold as we arrived in a good downpour. Lon personally washed each bike for us -- a very nice touch. |
| Memorable Scenery: |
Armadillo, Squirrel, and Possum Road Kills Rain Drizzle Rollers that just wouldn't stop Many nasty rollers that required us to really gear down to get up the other side |
| Mechanical Problems: |
Ken had a flat that required him to fix it
twice in the cold and rain. This was not fun. John
Ashby loaned Ken a tire and later Cheryl found a piece
of glass in Ken's tire. |
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Biomechanical (Engine) Problems: |
Ken ran the fuel tank a little close to empty. Something we've all done at least once. It's hard to gauge ... you think you're eating enough but these rollers and conditions take a lot out of you for sure. He stopped into a Mini-Mart and a couple of Candy Bars brought him back to life. A tip of the hat to Ken for perservering through a hard day coupled with the flat tires and extremely bad conditions. |
| What Worked: |
Fingers on glasses worked as windshield wipers as the
rain kept coming down
Goretex Helmet Cover from Phil "Mr. Goretex" Fawcett from 1990 PAC Tour Southern Transcontinental Long Sleeve Voler CalTripleCrown Jersey was excellent under a windbreaker: Never too cold and never too hot!! Carol's Chocolate Chip Cookies which she baked using Grandma Spencer's Secret Recipe made Chuck feel like both were with him on every hill today. |
| What Didn't Work: |
Nasty Rollers: The ones where you can't get
enough momentum
at the bottom to launch you up the other side and over
the top while still in your Big 53 Tooth Chainring so
you have to shift to your Small 39 Tooth Chainring.
Most of the rollers in Missouri were nasty.
Rain all day Cold all day so we couldn't stay long at any rest stop or else we would start locking up Yucky weather |
| Quote of the Day: |
than ride these !!??## rollers again." Ken Bartholic to Susan Notorangelo at the Finish It was icy cold, pouring rain, and we were wiped out when we arrived at the Munger Moss Hotel |