Day 26 – Larned to Garden City – Still in Kansas

Kansas is great when you have a tailwind. When you have a headwind, it’s a different story.

The today was very simple. Here’s a shot of JP’s Garmin giving him directions from the hotel as we left.

For those that haven’t read a Garmin 800 before, that first line tells you when the next turn is. Our route today was 100 miles long… the first turn was 99 miles in to the route. So yeah, we’re in Kansas.

J “I’m now a morning person” P got the jump on me again today and was out of the hotel about 6 minutes before me. Sunrise was pretty late today (6:25ish) and we had calm winds at the start. By the time I caught him, JP was clearly feeling the impact of his quality rides from the last few days. He decided to SAG up after the first hour to try to get his legs back under him for our next riding day on Saturday. I think it’s a fantastic idea especially when next week we’ll be riding in to the teeth of the Rockies.

About the time JP jumped in Art’s car, the wind started to pick up. But rather than having a tail wind from the East like the weatherman said, it was a headwind. A series of storms had just passed to our east and I think it was the tailing wind behind that storm.

Then the winds rotated around from the north for a bit… cross wind. Not great but not bad.

Then… magic. A solid tail wind. For about an hour I had a 10-12 mph tailwind. In the flats of Kansas, that kind of wind will make you feel like you’re riding in le Tour. I was cruising at 20mph without even trying. I thought I had the day made… not quite.

A word on the route. We rode Kansas Route 156 all day today. It’s a 2 lane road, no shoulder, and 65 mph speed limit. Oh, and some heavy truck traffic. Being seen is important, so I wore a bright red jersey, had a super bright red flashing tail light, and I even used a flashing white light on the front. There’s a lot of passing that occurs on 156 and the flashing front light keeps me from getting plowed in to by oncoming traffic.

I talked to some folks at the local bike store in Garden City this afternoon about 156 and they basically laughed and said “yeah, we don’t ride that road”. I picked a real winner of a route it seems.

I mentioned yesterday that Kansas is a big ramp up to the Rockies. Well, sometimes the ramp is steeper than other times. For instance, in the distance you can see here what appears to be a little rise at the end of a long straight.

When you get up to it, it’s not that little of a rise and it’s steeper than it let on. On this particular “rise” I nearly had to get in to my bailout 30 tooth ring in the back. Crazy. There were a number of these between mile 40 and 60 that got my attention.

Also around mile 40, the wind completed it’s swing and started hammering out of the southwest. Officially, that was a headwind. Grr… I fought through the wind and the heat until just before noon and called it a day. 72 miles of an emotional (and physical) roller coaster. I was hoping for 100, but right now 70-75 is my sweet spot… which is good because many of our days in the Rockies will be around 70 miles.

A side note on Heidi and the MCC. The MCC sticks out no matter where we go. It’s a BIG Mercedes sprinter van, it’s wrapped in vinyl with our logo and the logos of all our sponsors, it has all kinds of things sticking up off the roof,  and in general it doesn’t look like it belongs on back country roads (tho it performs fantastically on those roads). So when Heidi stops on the side of the road to wait for us, sometimes she draws the attention of locals. Today she pulled up at the Horse Thief Reservoir to wait for me late in the morning.

A gentleman in a red minivan pulled up and rather than going to the reservoir, he pulled up and started asking Heidi about the MCC and the ride. Turns out he’s been doing long distance rides for years and will be riding across Iowa in a few weeks. It was a great conversation, and similar to many others she’s already had. Frankly, she’s probably talked to more locals than I have on this adventure.

Tomorrow is a rest day, thank god. It’s been a busy week and we all need some time to unwind. I’ve already done some heavy lifting maintenance on my bike including putting on a new chain and attempting to true up my discs. Tomorrow we’ll do some sight seeing, restock the MCC, and continue to plan the route/stops for the next few weeks. The landscape is changing rapidly and we’re all stoked to get to the mountains.

Till tomorrow…