Pactour Day 8 - Tailwinds and Downhills

Crusing along at 24 mph Terri and Cathy Nixon-Heibel have chance to chat.  Gotta love tailwinds.

Maybe the Montana stretch of Pactour should be called Tour of the Super 8 Motels?  4th Super 8 in 4 nights.  Any hotel is the Ritz after a hundred mile bike ride in 100 degree heat.

Black Widow claimed another victim today.  Jim's leg on the left, JW's arm on the right.

Today's fast ride gave us time to jump into the Yellowstone river to cool off.  It was 105 when we got into town.  Pactour dog Bisty enjoyed chasing rocks into the river.

Today we rode from Bozeman to Columbus, Montana.  We've paid our debts so we earned the mostly downhill, tailwind day.  We averaged over 18mph (the other days have been in the 15-16mph range) so arrived at our hotel earlier than expected.  Threw in a couple loads of laundry and headed down to the Yellowstone River.  Very nice.

Today was JW's day to hit the deck, rolling into a stop sign he clipped the Turk's back wheel.  So, like father like son, mom claimed her second victim.  Only Will remains unscathed but we assume he is on the Turk's agenda.  JW got a little road rash on his elbow, and remarkably over his anterior upper pelvis bone.  None of the rest of us are thin enough to scrape that area, we'd bounce off our belly's.

Speaking of body composition the Turk has been stable thru 8 days of riding (however her calf definition seems to sharpen each day.)  Jim's weight has been stable, but his body fat percentage has dropped a couple of points.  Our scale has an interesting calculation where it gives you a "Metabolic Age."  Jim's started at 34 and is now 23.  Turk's started at 23 and is now 21.  See guys, you want a woman 20 years your junior?  Put her on a bike.  Will has dropped 3 pounds and 2% body fat, JW has gained 3 pounds and his body fat is stable.  I guess this means we are doing a good job of staying hydrated and nourished, it will be interesting to see what the next 2 weeks of riding show.

Jim had a back flat today after a ripping downhill (picked up a 1" nail, fortunately just a slow leak.)  As usual he sent the family ahead and fixed the flat.  A long slow chase downhill with a tailwind turned into a superfast superhard chase since just then Marc Leuckx (very fast Belgian rider) and Cat Berge (Swedish woman, RAAM racer) came upon Jim.  They chased for 10 minutes at 35mph with Jim's heart in the 168 range.  It'll be interesting to see how the family stacks up against Marc in 2 days on the Big Horn Climb (4300' climb in 18 miles Marc holds the record of 1hr. 17 min.)

Speaking of flats the family has had 7 so far.  We brought 25 spare tubes, so, so far we're OK.  Day 1 Jim had 3 flats (all rear wheel, finally found that tiny piece of wire from a steelbelted radial hiding in the tire tread) and JW had 1 flat (a front puncture hitting a rock on a down hill.)  Day 2 Turk had a rear flat.  Day 3 JW had a rear flat.  Days 4-8 were without any flats.  Some cyclists don't even like to speak of flats for fear of summoning up some angry flat tire god.

We had a fantastic meal 1/2 mile from our hotel (felt funny to walk, felt like we were going really sloooow.)  We at at a Restaurant/Bar/Casino.  Seems to be casino's everywhere in Montana, gambling must be big (and legal.)  Will and Jim each had a 12 oz Ribeye (fortunately they didn't go for the 16 or 22 oz cuts) which was the best steak they had ever had.  I guess Montana is beef country.  But then again, Terri had the pork chop sandwich which was the most tender cut of pork we've had so pigs must be nervous up here also!

Tomorrow is tougher day.  115 miles with 6200 feet of climbing.  Tonight will be 9pm lights out to get a bit more rest in preparation.

Thanx for reading.