Just the stats: 76 miles, 16.8 MPH average. Started riding at 8:50 am, finished at 12:45 pm - 4 hours 32 minutes riding time. Cloudy and warm with light rain in the am, 68 to 77 degrees, 100% humidity. Calories burned on the ride - 4,355.
Another cloudy rainy day in the country. The rain was light and only lasted the first hour. It was foggy until around 10 am and then just cloudy and very humid. The roads were a little rougher today, that with slight headwinds slowed us down.
I rode alone most of the day. My riding friend, Gordon got a flat early on in the ride but didn't let me know he was stopping. Looked behind me at one point and he wasn't behind me as he usually is. So I rode on alone.
On wet rainy days we tend to get flats easier. A number of riders had flats today.
We rode through eastern shore farmland all day today. It was interesting to see all the tomatoes growing in this area. Not much traffic on these back roads on this Sunday.
At the end of today's ride we gathered up and rode our support vehicles across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Here is a little history on the bridge: The Bridge-Tunnel project is a four-lane 20-mile-long crossing of the lower Chesapeake Bay. The crossing consists of bridges and two one-mile-long tunnels. The northbound portion opened in 1964 and the southbound opened in 1999 - both spans took four years to build.
Since I was the third rider to finish the 76 mile ride today, I figured I would have no problem riding in the first mini-van across. Well, I forgot about the folks who sag (riders who don't ride all day). I did get the last spot in the second van which went out together with the truck and first mini-van.
We have 24 riders on this ride (two people dropped out already). Not all riders ride the whole way every day. I am guessing here, but I would say maybe 7 or 8 of us riders have ridden every mile every day so far (we call it EFI). If I stay healthy, I hope to do it again.
Tomorrow we ride 77 miles to Kill Devil Hill, NC. The only thing I will be weary of is we have a 2.8 mile bridge with no shoulder - I will not cross that bridge alone. I'll wait for a couple of riders so we can take a lane and be seen by the other drivers.
I checked out the weather - it should be a partly cloudy day tomorrow, 68 to 77 degrees with winds from the north. Should be a great riding day.
Thanks for following me. Tom
3 comments:
Hey there. I finally figured this out. Looks like it's flat and water from here. Should be fun. I know it's hard work but it looks like a nice ride. The bridge idea sounds like a good one. Be safe and happy riding.
Michelle
Hi, Tom. Thank you for blogging. I look forward to reading each day's entry so I can still feel part of the ride.
I found a picture of the pumpkin patch; I'll email it to you.
Tom:
Very interesting blog today. I was most interested in how you were going to do the Bridge/tunnel comming into Virginia beach. I was driving that tunnel 3 weeks ago on my way into the Virginia Beach Hlaf marathon and was thinking about how it would be to ride it. I guess you could have ridden the Carrolton Blvd bridge, but that may have been along way out of the way.
Also very interesting about how a lot of the riders only ride part of the day. I am surprised. On the Crosscountry you only got in the van if you had to.
Keep up the good work.
Terry
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