Day 23 Duchesne to Dinosar 145.3km Uphill 3625ft Downhill 3290ft

I’m starting to get weary of these 5 a.m. mornings. I choked down my oatmeal this morning because all the guys had their helmets, vests and gloves on by 6:15 a.m. I’m wondering how I can get a hold of their alarms and set them back an hour without them knowing it.

Started out with arm warmers but discarded them within an hour. We are traveling on a very busy highway today. The police pulled over Cory and asked him to tell all the cyclists to stay single file and not to go over the white line. This is somewhat difficult with all the debris on the hwy. Oh and one mustn’t forget the rumble strips, so between the white line and the rumble strip you don’t have a lot of room to cycle.

The first 20 miles were downhill. Today we have the usual gang plus Dale M from GR. Three miles after we waved to Jake Kuipers at a gas station, he took a bad fall. He was on the hwy and his seat post broke so he hit the pavement. He landed on the road but thankfully no traffic was passing him at the time. A SAG picked him up and brought him to a bike store where they fixed up his bike and he was on his way again. (he only missed 20km of the ride). He does have some road rash on his chin but apparently his thigh and leg took the brunt of the fall. This is his second fall, they say ‘the third’s a charm’…maybe I’ll stay far behind him when he’s in our pace line.

The hwy is brutal on our tires. Debris from the trucker’s tires gets caught in our wheels and causes flats. Both Barb and Andy had flats today. Also the local traffic is not particularly happy to share the road with us. We’ve had a number of pick up trucks rev up and emit black smoke when they pass us. Really good for our lungs already taxed by the high altitude. The two major climbs today weren’t that bad, just long. After the first climb we hit a McDonalds (10:30) for coffee in the town of Vernal. At this point we are at the 95 km mark, only 50km to go! I will admit that I missed my home made pie, so tomorrow I will veto the McDonald and insist on the local Ma and Pa’s café. We had barely gotten on our bikes when someone spotted a bike shop. We had to make a quick stop to see if we need to purchase anything (don’t worry Ralph, no money exchanged hands!). Next stop the Pink Dinosaur. After all we are staying in Dinosaur tonight! This sculpture was outside of the bike shop....what not to do on a bike! Walter’s SAG was set up just before the second climb. He was treating everyone to Waltermelon (yes, I know its spelled wrong, I’m trying my hand at a pun). Our pace line broke up on the way up this last climb, Barb was behind John and then we had a space. Louie was behind me and when I told him to pass me, he generously slowed down and pulled me ½ way were we stopped at the lookout point. Pete Vannoord and I at the lookout point

The entire group stayed together for the rest of the climb. Andy got his flat 3 miles from our destination. John and Louie stayed back to help him and we continued on to the first ice-cream shop. $5.00 is highway robbery for a chocolate milk shake but the sugar and dairy product provided a great recovery drink. All in all it was a good day, long because of the heat (104F on my bike), but the altitude hasn’t bothered me yet and we all made it in without any major accidents. P.S. We crossed into the State of Colorado just after Andy got his flat. We are staying in the only park in Dinosaur. All the streets are named after various dinosaurs, ie. the street the park is on is called Stegosaurus, just off of Plateosaurus…you get the idea. The supper horn has sounded off, so time to eat. Tomorrow promises to be another long day in terms of km, but I don’t think we have any major climbs.

P.S. I just talked to Teresa. Since she was not allowed on her bike today she rode with Alida (our camp nurse) in her camper. Apparently they were traveling on the hwy in the 3rd lane when all of a sudden Alida lost all her power. They clipped off several transport trucks and ended up coming to a abrupt stop. The camper tipped to it’s side and the only thing that saved if from flipping was the sand hill that they were imbedded in. And Teresa thought that biking was the only thing that could cause her harm. I guess Gayle witnessed the entire event and ran up the hill faster than she usually bikes because she thought Alida had a heart attack. Alida is still not in camp. Apparently the reason she lost power was because she ran out of gas. At this point she needs to be towed out of the sand. It’s been a long day for Alida.

Till then, take care, Cynthia
Average speed of the day 24.7 Total km 149.3 Time on the bike 6:01:59