May 13 -- Springfield IL to Tuscola IL -- updates

The first part of today's blog is below, if you want to read these in chronological order ...

Well, today proved once again that there are no "gimmes" -- no freebies. Even though we only had 87 miles to ride, rough roads and wind makes those miles long ones. Thankfully they routed us along deserted county roads so we were able to draft diagonally most of the day. The wind, while due east and for the most part in our face, does vary enough that you have to find that "sweet spot" where drafting helps.

With the late load, of course, there was no getting out before the wind. We set out (Jerry, Geoff and I) and quickly ended up in a paceline of about 12 people. We were loafing along for a bit and then struck out on our own, leaving that particular paceline behind. At various times up to the first SAG we had the Guenter group (typically Guenter, Steve and Jeff) and the Jud group (almost always Jud, Dave and Rob -- this group is also referred to as the "hammers") drafting with us. At one point the Guenter group was behind us then, probably not happy with our pace, passed us but made no faster speed once they found out how strong the winds were. Even the "hammers" drafted behind us coming into the first (and only) SAG. Shortly thereafter many more got to the SAG at the "Raspberry Tea House" (closed today) but we were the first to leave. We rode by ourselves until about 10 miles from the end and then were caught by a group of about 12 which included the Guenter group, the Jud group and the Kasper group. They invited us to join in, but we were doing all right and had no interest in joining such a huge paceline.

Besides ... we caught them at the DQ anyway -- right across from the hotel.

Once at the hotel I decided to hand wash some of my biking clothes. I did not feel like standing around for the washer/dryer somewhere here at the hotel. If I have any problems getting things dried I'll go there early in the a.m.

Elapsed time today -- 5:15; mileage 87; rolling time 5:00.

The next note is for Aaron -- re the Wipperman chain. Yesterday was the first day with this chain and I was not altogether happy with the shifting -- sluggish to up or downshift at times. I was thinking to myself that if I didn't fix this I would swap it out and just keep it as a spare for the end of the ride. It seemed that the factory grease was too thick -- all I had done was wipe the extra grease off the sides of the chain and add a very little bit of Finish Line Teflon Dry Lube. This was the same procedure that I had followed with the Shimano DuraAce chain. So ... last night I thoroughly soaked the chain with the dry lube, while wiping off the excess, then gave it a last application of dry lube. Much better today ... shifting was crisp as with a new Shimano chain. The conditions are very drivetrain-friendly -- very little dust on the roads and no sand -- so it will easily last another day before a full cleaning.

Mechanical support is at 5pm today and RAP at 6pm. Then we have a t-shirt swap (I missed this in the pre-ride briefing so I bought a t-shirt in Kansas) ... and then we'll head off to dinner ... later than I would have liked. We passed an Italian restaurant about a mile down the road so we will likely go there with our bikes.

I only took a couple of pictures today -- this one is while riding -- you can see my riding buddies -- I had just finished pulling and have dropped back to 4th position. This was at a time when the wind was straight into our face so we're lined up. How do you like the scenery ? That is basically what we saw all day -- very minor changes in elevation, mostly corn or fields lying fallow. Grain silos, houses in the distance. County roads every mile or so ... not very exciting.