Monday 13 June 2011

The Fellowship of the Tour


Cancer Donations: Here
Ecuador Websites: Here
Ecuador Donations: Here



Sorry for the lack of blog updates in the last little while, its been some of the longest days of riding yet; but if you are following the facebook event page there were some updates there :D link Here

So I believe the last I left you guys was coming into Stanley ND. It seems like were we meant to stay there because we happen to meet up with another 4 cyclist all going west. The new group of three guys (Herb, Andre, and Bob) had been riding together since Connecticut, and Bob was doing a charity ride for prostate cancer. So we all had dinner (well I tried to have dinner but got kicked out of the bar, and had to have the guys bring it to me after…). Its strange going from being illegal before April first, to being legal for the two months I was in Canada, to back to illegal down here.

Coming out of Stanley ND I saw my longest day of riding ever undrafted, 180k from Stanley to Cumberland (Victoria to Naniamo is about 100-110k), and it was A. Hot. Day. Probably went through at least 1.2 bazillion water bottles. This was an excellent day of riding, minus the fact that I could feel myself start to get more sick. Up until this point I had been riding sick to the point where I would be coughing up phlegm and sneezing during the ride, but other than that I could still breathe. That was the first day I had problems with a tight feeling in my airways.

The next day was very cold and rainy, and even though I had a tail wind, it was a very difficult day of riding. During the end of the ride (maybe 15k out from the stopping point) I had two flat tires within 5 mins of each other, and it was just as I was fixing my second flat tire we got hit with some kind of hurricane-hail-wind storm. I was so sleepy by that point that I just had a warm drink and nap in the car. But after a while of trying to wait the storm out, it was apparent it wasn’t going anywhere. So out I went… I have never in my life ridden in conditions like that. It was so windy that I was riding on at least a 20-degree tilt to the right, and the water flying off my tires was blown almost horizontally. I ended up wearing glasses as much for eye protection from the freezing rain as anything, but the right side of my face was not so lucky and it was totally numb by the time I got into town.

Biking the day after was when I knew something was wrong with my health, I tried biking 20k out of the city and nearly passed out on my bike. So I went into the van and collapsed onto the back seat where I stayed for a good 3 hours sleeping. I drank some coffee and managed to get to the next city that had a hospital, and I got checked out the next day (the room they put me in had a wonderful bed, and they were really slow getting the doctor so as a result I had another wonderful nap :). The doc said I had bronchitis, but I felt like I had been through worse before on the trip (being sick, battling tornado winds, and riding injured after crashing) so I decided to rest for the rest of the day, and keep riding.

I don’t know what got into me the next day, maybe I needed to prove to myself that I still had what it took to keep riding, but I rode like a bat outta hell and it tuned into my second day of longest riding ever. 200k from Wolf Point to Malta MT. For the first part of the day I had a tailwind and was able to hold 38km/h for 2 and a half hours, but the wind shifted into a very strong crosswind during the afternoon. The last 40k felt like an eternity, I never knew my legs could hurt so much from fatigue, or it could feel like I was having a 6-hour asthma attack from the bronchitis. I still don’t know how I made it, but the campground we stayed at had THE NICEST BATHROOM EVER! It was tiled, smelled good, and was clean. The shower I took there was literally the best shower of my life. Ever. Period.

---------------interlude for some fun facts about cycling in strong crosswinds-----------
Although it seems crosswinds wouldn’t be as bad as headwinds, they are certainly comparable. Crosswinds will still slow you down considerably, but they are also very dangerous when you are riding on the side of a highway with huge freight trucks roaring by you at 110km/h. The gusty winds, in conjunction with the wind blasts from trucks, easily have the power to throw cyclists off the road, especially when one is tired. It also means that dust from dirt roads leading off the highway is blown into your face, making very hard to see and breathe, and rocks that are flung up from trucks are more likely to hit you; on this trip I have been hit once in the left lens of my sunglasses (thank god I was wearing those) and once in the right arm (took a good chunk of skin out and left a hole I still have).
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I will keep the updates coming, but Ill do smaller amounts at a time to keep it manageable. but for now, ill do my service for the greater odiferous good of the world and go take a shower :)


poor wittle fella's had a big day



Biking with Andre

 its blurry because I'm going 40km/h



that was a long day...

the crew with me

The crew, from left: Bob, Daffyd, Shauna, Andre, Herb

1 comment:

  1. oh MP. i hate bronchitis! i really hope you are feeling a-o-kay soon. what is up with getting sick in the summer...super lame is all i have to say. resting must feel good after all that riding tho hunh? miss you and good luck, amigo!

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