Pactour Day 7 - Lonism's are born in Montana

It may get near 100 in Montana during the day, but the rollouts can be cold in the am.  Seems your jersey back pockets are a good place to warm your hands...

Lon's calf.  The man is all muscle.  More on this later.

Riding 8 hours a day, you never know what you are hungry for 25 miles down the road.  Pactour rest stops have anything you can imagine.  Twizzlers, Jerky, cookies, fruit, energy drinks, crackers, Potato chips.  You need lots of fluids, calories and salt to get thru the days, but it has to appeal to you when you have time to eat it.

Today we kitted out in our sister shop, Bicycle-Heaven St. Charles, team uniform.  Ara Oggoian opened BHSC 6 months ago outside Chicago.

There is always something to do during Pactour.  Here Lon cleats up another riders shoes after today's ride.  Yesterday, he sewed up my bag which had torn because I've got way too much stuff in it.

Today did 100 miles from Butte to Boseman, still in Montana (we actually overnight 4 nights in Montana, the most of any state.)  The family rode easier so we all made it and enjoyed the ride.  We crossed the Continental Divide at mile 11, then had a sweet 15 miles descent to our first rest stop.  We were averaging 11 mph by the Divide, then 16 by the rest stop.

The boys and their friends have a running joke line about Chuck Norris.  I've always found this funny because I honestly don't think they know who Chuck Norris is.  But, the tell lots of jokes like "Chuck Norris's tears can cure cancer, problem is Chuck Norris has never cried."  Or, "If you spell Chuck Norris playing scrabble, you automatically win the game.....forever."

The gist of it is, Chuck Norris is the baddest, toughest strongest man to walk the planet, ever.  

Well, after spending a few days around Lon Haldeman, and riding behind his legs of steel yesterday the Lon jokes have begun.  For example, "When Lon rides his bike, he doesn't move.  The earth spins beneath his wheels."  Or "Lon invented the motorcycle so that his friends can keep up with him."  "Lon had a hula girl tattooed on his calf.  When he flexes, he not only can make her dance, but cook and clean too."

Anyways, I'm sure we'll hear more of these over the next 19 days.

So today we finished the first 7 days of riding.  And we're still in Montana!  Old school training went by mile per week.  We've done 800 miles in a week.  Newer training went by hours per week.  We did 49 hours of riding this week.  Newest training probably goes by workload per week.  We did 28,000 Kilojoules of work on the bike this week.

All without doping.  Only with excellent preparation, support, nutrition, hydration, recovery.  Mostly with teamwork.  The family as a team, and the teamwork of the Pactour crew.

Thanx for reading.