Probably The Hardest Day Yet

Seeing as how I just posted recently, I really don't have much to say in regards to the places we have been, but I felt it necessary to discuss yesterday's ride from Madison to Gays Mills, WI. It was another century day which oddly went from being 102 miles to 126 miles which is what my odometer read at the end of the day.

Now 126 miles in a car is a long time, at least 2 hours on the freeway. Well what about the bike? I left Madison yesterday morning at about 7am and didn't get to Gays Mills until about 530pm, a solid 10 hours on the bike. The day started off nicely, quite nicely in fact, we were at the first lunch stop before I knew it. Before that point in time though we realized that there was a problem with our direction sheet, a 13 mile problem. According to the van odometer lunch 1 was at mile 38, I was at mile 51 when I got there. This though would not be last of the problems with directions. By the time we finished the day most had gone about 20 miles out of their way.

Lunch 1 to lunch 2 at mile 80 was fine until about mile 70 when things got hard. The sun was beating down, the temperature in the upper 80's, and we had some ridiculous hills; whoever said Wisconsin is flat should have their head checked. It's a good thing I got to the second lunch stop when I did because my camelbak was out of water and I was hurting. At this point in time my odometer was reading 100 miles.

As if the day wasn't difficult enough there was a another 25 miles following the second stop. I was hot, tired, and really in no mood to be around anyone so I rode most of the way myself. On the way to the second stop we had done some serious climbing leaving a 10% downhill on the way out. Not having to peddal and just holding on for the ride was fantastic until I realized that I was in the valley and Gays Mills was over the next pass. It was around this time that I would look down at the odometer and it had only moved about 1/10 of a mile. At about 10 miles out from stop #2 the last climb started, a climb that would last about 4 miles and move us up about 6000 feet. I couldn't even wear my glasses because they were covered in sweat and impossible to see out of. Every corner I turned there was more hill to climb, I didn't know whether to laugh cry, or just throw my bike in a ditch and walk. I was one of the first ones to leave from the second stop and at no point did anyone catch me which was surprising considering someone walking could have moved faster than me....

Well I made it to the top of that hill only to be taunted by the sign "Gays Mills, 6 miles." At any other point I would have thought "6 miles, I can do this." Well at this point I was losing my head but I managed to push through and arrive at the church following a huge downhill which was a great finale. We were welcomed by Gatorade and a pool as well as some great food. The church was small, but worked perfectly for us. The sweeps made it in at around 830 and everyone was either asleep or in bed reading by 930; hell of day.....