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PAC Tour - When Even Your Easy Days Can be Tough
Today was a day we were all eagerly awaiting, entering much flatter Illinois, and a relatively low milage day at 145, a true recovery opportunity. We started out from St. Louis a half an hour earlier than normal, presumably to avoid traffic in downtown St. Louis. We stayed somewhere on the outskirts south of town and moved to the northeast toward downtown past the Gateway Arch and north along the river to cross on a pedestrian/bike only bridge.
Things were humming along just wonderfully, we all rode in a group at an easy pace, down to the Arch, took a group photo, and proceeded north along a bike trail along the levies. Along the trail I flatted along some railroad tracks, having two spare tubes, I waved everyone on and proceeded to fix the flat. The first replacement tube I loaded and just as I started to inflate it, the valve stem popped out and ruined the tube. Bugger! As I loaded my second and last tube I pumped it up just shy of normal pressure and as I released the pump, pssssssssst, the second valve stem blew out. Now I am stuck.
I called Lon who we just saw about a mile ago and he explained that he was having troubles of his own, the support minivan he was driving also had a flat. That, and he could'nt get to me on the bike path anyway with a vehicle. I told him I would ride the flat back to him and pick up some new tubes. As I backtracked along the bike trail, Lon rode his bike to meet me, gave me three spare tubes and went back on his way. I quickly fixed up, and got back on my way. With all of that messing around, the group was already a half an hour ahead of me and I hadn't even gotten to the first SAG stop.
Gratefully, Susan was waiting for me at the SAG, so I could quickly fill bottles grab a bite for my pockets and we both needed to quickly get on our way. Susan has to support other riders up the road and get lunch rolling, so there is not a lot of spare time to be waiting on lagging riders, like me. She was great. Without food and fluids, I would not have made it to the next stop, another 25 miles up the road. Thanks Susan!
I proceeded toward the Chain of Rocks Bridge, which I believe is the old Route 66 bridge, which is closed to vehicular traffic. On the bridge, I found Lynn who had heard of my misfortune and waited up for me. What a fantastic gesture! I was happy to have her company on what I thought otherwise might have been a solo day on the bike as I certainly would not have caught up to anyone else in our group. Thanks Lynn!
Shortly after crossing the bridge into Illinois, we made another tactical error, that is, we got lost. We missed a turn which was not labeled at the intersection and my milage on my bike computer no longer matched the route cards due to my earlier backtracking. Even by adjusting the math, it didn't come out that we were due to turn yet. In any event, we went several miles out of our way before we realized something was not right and had to back track along the route. More lost time!
We rode a nicely paved bike trail to the second stop in Edwardsville, where we met up with Mike, who also found himself off course. The three of us set out from the SAG together, and wouldn't you know it, we missed another turn and went yet another several miles out of our way before realizing things were not right.
Lost another half hour. Lynn and I were getting a bit panicky to say the least, as neither of us wanted to be forced to be driven (sagged) up the road to keep pace with the rest of the group. We both were fearful that we would miss the lunch trailer which was the fourth stop on the day at just over 100 miles. With a low milage day, getting this far off track was not a hugh problem, as there was still plenty of daylight available to finish the ride before dark. Nonetheless, it is no fun to be playing catch-up all day on what was supposed to be a slow recovery day.
Lynn and I rode with great purpose in trying to get to lunch before it closed. Not to sound whiny, but I will be, we were also heading into, you guessed it, a steady headwind. We made it to the lunch stop just after 2 pm. Whew. John N. also hung back at the lunch stop to help us get to the finish. John is a veteran PAC Tour rider and his kind gesture and assistance to us was greatly appreciated.
With all of the misfortunes we encountered today, we wound up rolling into Effingham as the last group off the road, only about 10 minutes after the previous group to arrive. As with the completion of every day on PAC Tour, you quickly erase the bumps and mishaps along the way and are thankful to be off the bike to get ready for another day tomorrow.
Here are a few pics I took along the way today:
This cleat, which is attached to bottom of shoe, was spanking new 10 days ago.
Now is useless having come 2,000 miles already.
Rolling out to St. Louis in early morning.
Entering downtown St. Louis.
Some local art along the levy.
Gateway Arch, "Gateway to the East"
Partial Arch.
Smaller arches
Crossing Mississippi on Chain of Rocks Bridge (old Route 66)
On the bridge with St. Louis in backgroud. Do gnomes live in that house?
Bicycle gate in small Illinois town. New meaning to "chain" link fence!
Super bedspread at the Motel 6.
Honey, I ordered the queen size, it ships tomorrow!
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