PacTour Day 5 "Hip Surfin on the Tarmac"

If you look in Western Montana on the map, you'll see how far we are and our little route for today...

As promised, the view from the boys back porch.  Simply epic scenery in western Montana.

Since we start early, breakfast is generally served by the PacTour Crew outside the motel.  

Jim is using his SRM Powermeter, for fun, not really for training on the trip across the U.S.   When the speed dips down and the power spikes up you can bet he's giving the Turk a little help pushing her up a hill.

Today we rode 136 miles from Thompson Falls to Missoula, Montana.  We now know that Missoula is home of University of Minnesota.   Jim decided to overlap Turk's wheel during the second hour, landing on his hip, knee and shoulder at a about 15 mph.   Fortunately the roads in Minnesota are nice and smooth so only a little hematoma on the hip and a small scrape on the knee.  In Texas there would have been alot more damage to both rider and clothing.  I guess Jim needs to reflect back on Day 1's philosophical topic - First of all Be Safety (courtesy of our favorite local bike race promoter, Raul.)  Other than that the ride today was awesome, winding back and forth across I-90 (hard to image that road ends in Boston, MA.)  The climbs were gentle and we finally had a tail wind.  Turk's legs are starting to come around and her attitude seems to be following, we think she is almost enjoying the ride1!!

A typical 130 mile ride day at Pactour starts at 5:45 with wakeup and shower (and weighing and body fat analysis.)  Breakfast is at 6, generally in the parking lot consisting of muffins, fruit, oatmeal, toasted bagels, coffee and juice - served by the Pactour crew.  The bags are brought out to the Motel Truck at 6:20 and we are on the bikes at 6:30.  

Rest stop 1 is around 30 miles (basically a 1%'er) Rest stop 2 at 6o miles, Rest stop 3  at 80 miles.  Rest stops are done by the Red Caravan, or the Motel Van, which leap frog each other.  All imaginable snacks, gatorade, soda, water, creams, sunblock are provided at these.  Lunch is at mile 100 (not a bad little ride to earn lunch!) and the Lunch van cooks hamburgers or hot dogs or grilled cheese or burritos, or there is sandwich meat depending on the day.

After lunch there will be another little 1%'er to the hotel generally with another rest stop on the way.  We reapply sunblock every other stop and chamois cream every stop.  Chafing is an issue after 8 hours on the bike, so like good little babies we are even using A&D ointment and Desitin at night.  Key to keeping the ride fresh, ice for water bottles is at every stop also.   With global warming even in Minnesota it's 100 degrees.

I mentioned our bikes earlier.  Turk rides the Cannondale Synapse, Jim the Cannondale SystemSix.  This is timely since Cannondale bikes rode to victory in the Tour de France 2 of the last 3 stages, 1 a climbing stage, the other a sprinting stage.  2 days ago Mauricio Soler of Barloworld won the climbing stage, today Robbie Hunter of Barloworld won the sprinters stage.  Barloworld was one of only 2 invited teams to the Tour, the other teams all being automatic selections.  

The bikes are interesting since Terri's Synapse was originally market as Cannondale's most comfortable bike, well it is so comfortable that now with a super light weight version it is a favorite for the climbers.  Mauricio Soler probably rode the Synapse winning his stage.  Jim's SystemSix is a new bike for him, replacing his 3 year old original Six13.   Jim replaced his bike with the "newer" model with alot of trepidationsince the Six13 was the most comfortable bike he ever rode.  Well the System Six is every bit as comfortable and alot stiffer (good for a 200 pounder.)  Robbie Hunter probably won today on a SystemSix, unless he is now riding the newest Cannondale SuperSix.

Tomorrow another 135 miler and I think we cross the continental divide.  Today we did 4200 feet of climbing, tomorrow should be around 5200 feet of climbing so we are probably looking at 9 hours ride time.  

Thanx for reading and the emails and text messages.