Intermediate Entry - Bozeman, MT

Today was a great day - best so far. I will post info and pics of today, tomorrow. So look forward to a double posting. In the meantime....

Thanks to all of you who leave comments here on the blog. I did get one question that I will try to answer here. I was asked about the rate of 'attrition' on this ride and I will try to answer it and tell you a bit about some of the folks on this ride.

First off, there are 45 riders and 12 support. Of the 45, only about 7 are first time PacTour riders (that's me). So the vast majority has done this before and knows what to expect. There are also some extremely successful cyclists here. 2 of the women on the ride have WON RAAM (recently). RAAM is Race Across America. Google it and see how remarkable a feat this is. It's like riding the Tour de France in 9 or 10 days with almost no sleep. Another of the women riders holds the 1 hour record for Masters in the UK and has ridden the Tour of Hope with Lance in 2003. There are about 7 Elite Riders as well. These are guys that also do RAAM. Some have logged more than 20,000 miles with PacTour and some have done races like Paris-Brest-Paris (such as my roommate Mark). These riders are completely inspiring to me. They came from all over the country and from Europe and Australia too. And most are older than me and still kicking butt.

We just finished day 3 and as for attrition, it may be too soon to say. But I don't think anyone has SAG'ed yet. Today was relatively light at 101 miles and tomorrow is 90. But day 5 is going to be a tough one at 150 and lot's of climbing. Let's see what happens after that.

Anticipating the next question - where do I fit into this group? That's also too soon to say. One of the great things about this ride is that it's not a race. Today we rode through a beautiful part of Montana and I just stopped to enjoy the scenery and absolute quiet. It was time to smell the roses. That said, there are 2 guys who always finish first. They're very strong indeed. The last 2 days our group was first in behind them. The first day I took it a lot easier. As we come to some of the more serious climbing that could all change. But I feel good and I would say I'm holding my own quite nicely.

The following video is from Chip Keyes, who is tearing up the field. Check out who's leading on this one :)


Keeping it light in the wind... from chip keyes on Vimeo.