Today was a big day with a 107 mile ride. As shown in the photo, it started out wet with a light tailwind all day. It rained steadily on us for the first 32 miles before letting up and then rained intermittently for most of the rest of the day. However, before you start feeling sorry for us, most of the riders agreed that the cool rain was very nice to ride in and the day was much more pleasant than the hot gusty crosswinds of yesterday. In fact, most agreed that today's 107 miles was easier than yesterday's 74 miles. Several set a personal record for a century ride (100 miles or over). Randy and I averaged 14.9 mph for the 107 miles which is probably one of the fastest century rides that I have ever ridden. I believe that we did average around 16mph on one of our desert centuries with a tail wind.
Randy (California) riding ahead of me. The overcast skies kept the temps in the low 70's which was very comfortable. Most of our roads. today. were decent with minimal traffic.
Click to enlarge this photo to see the bridge over the Illinois River near Meredosia.
A closer photo of the bridge over the Illinois River at Meredosia. Traffic was not a problem when we crossed the bridge. Since there are no shoulders or walkways, we had to ride in the traffic lane. We call it "taking the lane".
This rural CB dealer was interesting with his many antennas.
Closing in on Springfield, our destination for today - 18 miles to go. Today's terrain was mostly flat - prime Illinois farm land. It seemed very wet as we have observed in most of our tour across the Midwest and crops have been planted late with some not being planted yet. A farmer in a restaurant this evening said that farmland was selling for $8,000 an acre and cash renting for $360 an acre. Those figures will be of interest to my farmer friends back home.
Riding in the rain means a good bike cleanup at the end of the day before taking our bikes into our motel rooms. Here, Trevor (England) is cleaning his fast looking tandem. Trevor and his wife Susan are a couple of the faster riders and often break the wind for other riders when riding into headwinds. Trevor is an accomplished bike racer back in England. Trevor and Susan will be leaving the tour after tomorrow's ride to Champaign - a planned departure. We are sorry to see them go.
Tomorrow's ride will be 87 miles to Champaign, IL, after which we will have a rest day in Champaign. My wife, Kim, plans to spend the rest day with me in Champaign. She drove to Ft Madison, IA, on Saturday to visit friends for the weekend - as she grew up in Ft. Madison. She will drive to Champaign, tomorrow.
Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for the comments.
Bob
