I didn’t have enough service to post this yesterday so here it is today:
Each year the ACA (Adventure Cycling Association) hosts a race along the entire Trans-Am route. This race started a few weeks ago and we're getting more sightings of racers as they overtake us. We hadn’t met anyone who was an actual racer until today. Either other riders would mention or even shop keepers. Today we met Markku (Finish for Mark); he is our age and this is his first big endurance race. We compared notes on a few different places and terrains. This heat must be killing him, it’s bad enough for us and we live near by. In Finland summer days are in the 70s and winters can be about 20 below. In training for this race Markku had to ride his country roads in 20 degrees Fahrenheit while avoiding snow drifts.
He couldn’t remember exactly which day he was on, but he was pretty sure it was day 17. Today is our day 57 (and that does not include the week off for the wedding). (I will pause to let you pick your jaw up before you drop it again.) His biggest day on the trip was 305 miles which took him 22 hours to complete! I don’t know how these guys (including girls) do it. The record for the race is 17 days and some hours and they start about 200 miles north of us in Astoria, OR. Astoria is the technical starting city but the alternate start point is Florence. The only thing we missed out on was a couple hundred miles along the coastline. In the end the bragging rights are still the same, “I biked coast to coast.” We said good luck to Markku at the garage as we were done with the day and he was going to try to make it into Illinois tonight.
Here is the website that tracks the racers: http://trackleaders.com/transam16
We are in Ellington, MO tonight. We were going to stay at an Ozark park but there weren’t showers and the gnats were swarming us, so we headed back to the main road and put in 14 more miles to get to an air-conditioned hostel, which is maintained by the city. We aren’t the only ones seeking the free shower. Jeff is here, a chemistry teacher in his late 50s from Mississippi, Michael from Portland who is 30s-ish and an aritecht, another 20 year-old guy who popped his head in, took a shower and headed to the Mexican Restaurant down the road, and it sounds like a Brit will be joining the pack later tonight.
Jake Report:
Miles: 73.0, time on bike: 6h 34m, average: 11.13, total miles: 2954, weather: mostly sunny, some big clouds, hot, breezy
Each year the ACA (Adventure Cycling Association) hosts a race along the entire Trans-Am route. This race started a few weeks ago and we're getting more sightings of racers as they overtake us. We hadn’t met anyone who was an actual racer until today. Either other riders would mention or even shop keepers. Today we met Markku (Finish for Mark); he is our age and this is his first big endurance race. We compared notes on a few different places and terrains. This heat must be killing him, it’s bad enough for us and we live near by. In Finland summer days are in the 70s and winters can be about 20 below. In training for this race Markku had to ride his country roads in 20 degrees Fahrenheit while avoiding snow drifts.
He couldn’t remember exactly which day he was on, but he was pretty sure it was day 17. Today is our day 57 (and that does not include the week off for the wedding). (I will pause to let you pick your jaw up before you drop it again.) His biggest day on the trip was 305 miles which took him 22 hours to complete! I don’t know how these guys (including girls) do it. The record for the race is 17 days and some hours and they start about 200 miles north of us in Astoria, OR. Astoria is the technical starting city but the alternate start point is Florence. The only thing we missed out on was a couple hundred miles along the coastline. In the end the bragging rights are still the same, “I biked coast to coast.” We said good luck to Markku at the garage as we were done with the day and he was going to try to make it into Illinois tonight.
Here is the website that tracks the racers: http://trackleaders.com/transam16
We are in Ellington, MO tonight. We were going to stay at an Ozark park but there weren’t showers and the gnats were swarming us, so we headed back to the main road and put in 14 more miles to get to an air-conditioned hostel, which is maintained by the city. We aren’t the only ones seeking the free shower. Jeff is here, a chemistry teacher in his late 50s from Mississippi, Michael from Portland who is 30s-ish and an aritecht, another 20 year-old guy who popped his head in, took a shower and headed to the Mexican Restaurant down the road, and it sounds like a Brit will be joining the pack later tonight.
Jake Report:
Miles: 73.0, time on bike: 6h 34m, average: 11.13, total miles: 2954, weather: mostly sunny, some big clouds, hot, breezy