Quote of the Day: "What a beautiful day for a bike ride" - Me
Alternate quote of the day: "I can't believe we're getting soaked in the last 100 yards." Cyclist near me
The theme of the day was weather. The predicted heavy rains didn't really come until the last 100 yards or so of the ride. We did have a few showers in the last 15 or so miles, but nothing like the deluge that started down as we neared Annapolis. There were also many complaints about the winds, but even that didn't seem too bad if you just took a moment to look around the beautiful scenery of eastern Maryland.
The day started in Wilmington with a lap around downtown Wilmington where it looked like all of the city and state dignitaries came out to great us. DuPont CEO Chad Holliday was also present and honored for a $3 million donation to the National Law Enforcement Memorial. I didn't know this was happening until I heard the sounds of bagpipes echoing amongst the tall buildings. When we rounded the corner, the crowd was there, including an entire Police recruit class standing at attention as we rolled by. In addition to our usual 2 and 4 wheeled escort, we also had air support from the Delaware State Police helicopter.
Once we got into Maryland, the winds started to pick up, but I got into a nice echelon of 4 riders that made things easier, then spent time either leading into headwinds or blocking crosswinds for a couple of riders who were having something less than a great day on the bike.
Fortunately for us, the state of Maryland will not close the bay bridge for us to cross, so we were bussed over the last few miles, in an absolute downpour. The Motors came through again, as always, providing us with safe passage, but they got very wet.
The stats for the day:
miles ridden: 93.56
hours in the saddle: 7:44
flat tires: 1
miles not ridden for time in repair trailer: 5-ish
3 comments:
Winds!?! Did you tell everyone the conditions that you trained in?
Hope your last day is great!
I probably did mention riding a little in the wind. I'm not too fond of wind, so mostly kept my head down and kept peddling. I did tell them about real hills when they complained about the little rollers we rode over.
I want to know how you take all those pictures without falling over! Glad that everything is going well, so far (minus the flat tire). Day 4 should be awesome.
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