1000 miles and tire troubles

Before we started today, Rick who is the mechanic told me he admired me. I was riding the heaviest bike by far and he was impressed. He told me that his shoulder hurt this morning and it was probably because he hurt it when he lifted my bike. My bike is at least 5 pounds heavier than any other bike (Rick thinks it is more).

Up to this point I have ridden one day with limited front break (yesterday), one day with limited back breaks and about 40 miles with a broken spoke in the back. Luckily, I had taken Tracy's advice and I had brought 4 spare spokes.

We started out from the hotel and the CrossRoads team placed a 1000 mile mark in the road. A message from me:

The route was mostly flat and downhill at times. The view was beautiful and we arrived at the first SAG which was located at a closed Texaco station.

The route was off the highway, but it was very pretty.

At about the 67 mile mark, we climbed something called "The Wall". It was a .7 climb. It was the most difficult climb of the trip. I made it to the top safe and sound and waited for my team.

At the 76 mile mark, we stopped at the SAG for about 30 minutes. After the SAG, we came to another "mini wall". At this point I started to think if my bicycle would hold up I might be able to complete this trip. I should not have started to think about that as at the 98 mile mark I had some tire and tube issues. My front tire exploded and had 3 blisters on the tire. It was un-rideable. Fortunately, Mack of CrossRoads passed me along with Mike who is also riding. Mike was SAGing in which means he would not be completing his ride. We asked him if we could borrow his front tire and put on my bike and he said it was ok. Everyone was very amused and had never seen a tire in that condition and started to take pictures. Everyone, but me. As we were fixing that condition we heard my back tire starting to hiss. That tire had gone flat and we had to fix that as well. Thanks to Harry, Karen and Alec for their help, as well as Mack and Mike (who should probably get credit for the last 10 miles, but for which a beer will have to suffice).

Below are pictures of the new front tire and a picture of the front tire on the map at the end of the day.


We finally arrived at the destination city.

Las Vegas, NV - Tucumcari, NM

As my front tire has the first 3 items of information and it was kaput at mile 98, below is information provided by Karen:

Miles 108.9

Avg. MPH 16.0

Actual bike time 6:46

Left Hotel: 7:25

Arrive Hotel 5:00