More on the Typical PAC Tour Day

Two more comments on the typical PAC tour day.

First, on arrival at the motel stop for the day it usually takes about an hour to rehydrate consume a bit of food talk about the day and clean and maintain the bike (today Steve spent a good 30 minutes evicting the half dozen canaries that had taken up residence in his rear dérailleur) before heading for the allotted room and a shower.

We aim to eat early and, Telstra's coverage permitting, communicate with the sane and sensible world before hitting the sack about 9 to 9.30.

Second, days 7 & 8 demonstrate the problems with talking "typical". On paper the are all but identical at 100 miles and about 4000ft of climbing in temperatures reaching above 100F but in practice they were remarkably different due mainly to the quality of the road surface - much better on day 8; the wind - favourable on day 8 and the discipline we were able to keep. On day seven in a moment of exhilaration having just crossed the Continental Divide on reaching the summit of Pipestone Pass (5 mile 1200 ft climb) and enjoying a 7 mile descent at 35 - 42 MPH, we fell into the trap of joining a pace line doing about 24 MPH for the 6 - 8 miles to the first SAG. We paid for that indiscretion three hours later when the last 20 miles into Bozeman felt like 50 and we both aged 20 years. Today we maintained the discipline and arrived in shorter time and feeling much better with ourselves and each other.

Finally a wether update - due to a persistent and intense high pressure region in the extreme south Steve's ardour has cooled by about 25 degrees - Rob's by contrast has increased by 10 or 15 and so we are both in the warm temperate zone - with an emphasis on the temperate.