Mileage: 97.1 miles Average Speed: 15.7 mph
Vertical: 3006 feet Depart: 6:03 AM Arrive: 1:12 PM
Calories: 6313
This was another absolutely glorious day on the road. When we left Mountain Home, it was about 51 degrees, and stayed relatively cool throughout the morning. I started out riding with Tom Zack and Margo Addison, who had ridden together several days. This worked out pretty well, although a few miles from the first SAG, a nice pace line led by our two time FAST America rider Jay Lewis came by, and I couldn't resist jumping on. Jay pulled the entire 28 miles to the SAG, and had about 7 or 8 of us on the gravy train. Anyway, I took the following picture a few miles out of Mountain Home from the seat of my bike to give you a feel for the morning we had.
The AbB people did a great job with this route, and kept us on largely deserted back roads most of the day. We just kind of rolled along unperturbed. We were along the Snake River again today for some of the ride, and this photo gives you a good idea of how picturesque it is.
After the first SAG, we recruited a few more like riders, including Bob Shaw, Beth Laber, and Mark Scheer. I spent a portion of the ride with Bob and Margo, pictured with me here at one of the overlooks. We were discussing events we had been in, and I wisely kept my mouth shut. It turns out Margo has 4 sub 3 hour marathons to her credit, with a best of 2:48:40, and Bob has done 3 full Ironman distance triathlons, with a best under 12 hours. To say I was impressed is clearly understating it. Margo is a 59 year old from the Bay area who teaches reading to kids who are behind grade level. Bob is a 53 year old from the DC area, who runs a company that makes lithium ion batteries. We got back with the other 3, and formed a nice pace line that took us smoothly about 20 miles.
As we got close to Twin Falls, there was a side trip to an overlook of the canyon where Evel Kneivel tried his jump. Here is yours truly posing at the canyon.
We then made our way to the Best Western, where the 6 of us headed to an Italian restaurant for a nice post ride lunch to cap a lovely day on the road. We have a very easy day tomorrow, so I plan to backtrap to the bridge into the city where they do BASE jumping (jump from the bridge and open a parachute). Some of the folks caught jumpers today, but they had just landed when I got there.
No comments:
Post a Comment