Day 13

Sometimes your butt drags (see Day 3) and sometimes you fly. Today we flew. We traversed the 92 mile stretch from Harlowton to Billings in less than 6 hours. That time included two rest stops, a lunch stop, and a stop to fix a broken spoke on my riding partner's bike. If the roads through this part of Montana weren't so crappy, we would have probably cut another half-hour off our time.

We left Harlowton shortly after 6 am. The pack was riding so fast that they moved the first rest stop out from 20 miles to 30 miles. All day long the support vehicles were having difficulty staying out in front of the lead riders. If Mike hadn't broke a spoke 8 miles out of Billings we would have made it there by 11:30.

We averaged 18.2 mph while on the bikes. I'd like to say that we are getting so strong that this will be the norm for the rest of the ride. Probably not. Our time was enhanced by a west wind on steroids. As the day went on, the wind got stronger.

The first half on the ride went due east on Highway 12. We flew into Ryegate for the first rest stop. We set up in a park across from the Ryegrass Bar--home of the "Testicle Festival". They weren't open and Mike said he didn't want to eat one anyway--let alone watch anyone else eat one, too. Walking around wearing lycra in a town that celebrates castration by eating the remnants didn't seem appealing so we blew out of town. Literally, we blew out of town, and it was just 7:45.

The wind was with us until we turned south on SR3 toward Billings. The sky filled with dark clouds and we got a touch of rain. I remembered yesterday and thought our luck had changed. It had, for about 10 minutes. As the road turned southeast the wind turned behind us and picked up to about 15-20 mph.

Most people think that a following wind pushes you. Not so. If you are riding 20 mph with a 3 mph tailwind your forward resistance is reduced a little. If you are riding 20 mph with a 20 mph tailwind it is like riding in a vacuum. Mix that with a smooth travelway and you are really flying. That's what we did when the roadway cooperated.

We finished lunch at 10:00 am in Lavina. We were that far ahead of schedule. The town was setting up for their 4th of July parade and asked us if we wanted to ride in it. No way--got flying to do!

The ride was a mixture of rolling hills, fields and grain elevators. They are breezed by. The wind continued to pick up but stayed in our favor. We were picking up speed and on brand new pavement...flying...

Ahead of asphalt paving projects they grind the surface of the old pavement to get the new payment to stick. That's what we rode on for 5 full miles. Twenty miles per hour on that surface on bike will rattle the fillings out of your teeth. It's amazing that the machines we ride on take that abuse. I'm thankful for the mechanical support that Allen, part of the crew, provides along the way. I’m also thankful I’m on a carbon fiber bike. An aluminum frame bike would transmit too much vibration.

About 8 miles out of Billings Mike broke a spoke. With no support vehicles near we were able to wrap the broken spoke around a good one so he could limp into town. I took off in a blaze for Billing because I’d asked by wife to send a package of some bicycle parts there.

Billings is located in a basin rimmed with steep sandstone bluffs carved out by the Yellowstone River. The decent into town is exciting. Kristin, a fellow rider, misunderstood my haste to get to the post office and took it as a challenge, racing me down an 8 percent grade into town at speeds approaching 45 mph. I blew by Montana State University, where we are staying, and signaled to Kristin not to follow, since I was headed off course. She waved and peeled off into the campus.

I rode into town and got directions to the local Post Office. Back home, the Post Office is open until noon on Saturday, so I figured I had about 10 minutes to get there. I raced through town (obeying all traffic signals, of course) and made to the Post Office with 5 minutes to spare. I parked my bike and bounded up the stair on wobbly legs just to find out they are closed on Saturday. I cussed and called my wife, not knowing how I would recover my package since we were riding out early on Monday. It turns out that Callene, my wife, never sent the package because she knew I wouldn’t make it. Sometimes a woman’s intuition is just spooky.

We were treated to an excellent barbeque of beef brisket and beer in the park next to Montana State. Suzanne Bay, a world class triathlete from Duke that joined us in Missoula, celebrated her 21st birthday with the group.