Ride Update: I have ridden 3,137 miles (97% of the total) and climbed 87,852'. I have one day/80 miles remaining.
Note: My email is back up. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Interesting day. After a fitful night's sleep (I was awake from 1:30-3:00AM), and a relatively late start, I departed from breakfast alone. The morning was cool and clear and the day held that way until mid afternoon, when things finally warmed up- but not uncomfortably so. Within a few miles from the Echo Restaurant's breakfast buffet,
I heard riders approaching me and I turned to see Big Ralph and Gerard coming by. I decided to play with the big boys (these two are among the elite riders on our tour and have some impressive cycling accomplishments to their credit) and stomped on the gas, quickly falling in behind Gerard. I have ridden with both of these fine guys before and enjoy their company, but I had serious doubts as to how long I could even draft behind them. I knew full well that getting in front to pull would lead to a catastrophic melt down, so I dutifully paid homage by staying in the slipstream. That turned out to take a heroic effort on my part.In a mile or so we were joined by John from Minnesota, who is a strong rider, but still not in the same league as our big boys. With John aboard, Ralph and Gerard taxied down the country road and in short order, lifted off-two abreast- into a brisk headwind. The wind blew the rest of the day and in spite of being in the draft, the boys hammered me into the ground- cruising along at 19 up the hills, 20-24 on the flats and who knows how fast downhill. For 35 miles, I scrapped to stay on Gerard's wheel. The hardest part came early on, as I struggled to get warmed up (I find this can take an hour or more). The middle part of the ride was the easiest for me as I finally warmed up and got reasonably comfortable. Then my comfort level began to decay, and by the sag at mile 35, I was crying "Uncle". With no real regrets, I tendered my resignation and waited for a more moderate group to join.
While waiting for a group to materialize, I was standing next to my bike, talking to a staffer and we both heard a hissing sound. In two shakes of a lambs tail, we had the noise pinned down to the Habersham Bicycle TCR Giant, that I call mine. It was my second flat of the day and with some fine help from Mike Miller, we stripped that boy down to the essentials, and had it roadworthy lickety split.
My group finally appeared-and a familiar group it was- the Millers, Gary, Max and Mark, and the Paines. Unfortunately, within a few miles we had trouble holding the group together and quickly began to lose people off the front and back.
After Derek's chain disintegrated, Joel, Allison and I formed an alliance and held that formation all the way to the Falls. Just before crossing back into the US, Joel announced that he was buying my lunch- and not just any lunch. We got a patio table at Wolfgang Pucks- for some "real food", as Allison called it. After a wonderful lunch, we jooked our way through the traffic, 
stopped for the obligatory pics at the falls- always a treat- and then inched our way across the Rainbow Bridge- our re-entry to the U.S.Today marks the end of our fifth leg- a modest one by previous standards with only six days, 495 miles and 7300' of climbing. And with the close of this leg, we found ourselves saying goodbye to six riders- several of whom I have had the pleasure of spending a fair amount of time. We are losing Topper, Lois, Bud, Sarah, Allison, and Dave. I will miss all of them, but some have become good buds and I wish they'd have postponed this for a couple of days. I especially want to wish Allison Paine good fortunes as she starts medical school at UC Irvine in a couple of weeks. This is a really smart young lady with unlimited potential who, so far, has always been right. Good Luck Allison-I'll miss riding with you!!
