Today was a difficult day due to the weather and terrain. A few days ago there was heat, humidity, and headwinds that made for difficult cycling. Today, it was hills and headwinds.

The forecast for today called for 20-30 mile per hour winds from the north with gusts to 39 miles per hour. Guess what direction we were headed today? That’s right. North.

Newcastle, Wyoming is at about 4300 feet in elevation. The first 30 miles of today’s ride was mostly upwards and topped out at O’Neill Pass where the elevation is 6785 feet. Not a huge climb, really, but the headwinds made for very slow riding. I was averaging about 7 miles per hour for the first 30 miles of the ride today.

I was more tired than I thought from the ride yesterday, so when my left knee started hurting today at about 15 miles into the ride, I started having some concerns about today’s ride. I had planned a 75 mile ride to Belle Fourche, South Dakota. I’ve done plenty of 75 mile rides since leaving Salt Lake City in March, but this one would be all against the headwind and up and down the hills.

Due to the conditions today, Pat and I had agreed that she would wait for me at roughly 10-mile intervals on the route today. At about 43 miles into the ride (around lunchtime), Pat was waiting for me at Cheyenne Crossing, South Dakota. This small town was the first town we encountered after crossing the border back into South Dakota. It was at this stop that I raised my concerns about the remainder of the ride. We talked about our options and decided it would be in our best interests to split this ride into two days. Hopefully, tomorrow will provide winds from a different direction. I put the bike onto the bike rack and we drove eight miles into Lead, South Dakota to stay the night. Tomorrow, we’ll return to Cheyenne Crossing and finish the ride to Belle Fourche.

We don’t have much for internet access here in Lead. The motel doesn’t provide it for guests, so I’m using the wireless broadband service that we have through our cellphone service provider. Unfortunately, Lead must be on the very edge of its service area, because the only place I can get connected is at a picnic table outside the motel and it’s only about 55 degrees outside right now. So I’m afraid that’s about all I have time for today.

Total distance:	43.17 miles
Time:	4:29:29
Average speed:	9.6 mph
Maximum speed:	35.1 mph
Total calories:	2776
Average heart rate:	119 bpm
Maximum heart rate:	163 bpm
Total ascent:	3314 feet
Total descent:	2379 feet
Ride profile:	(Click on image to view a larger version.)
Ride comments: Strong headwinds today — 20-30 mph with gusts to 30 mph.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 31st, 2006 at 4:47 pm and is filed under The Dream Tour, Bicycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.