PACTour Eastern Mts - Day 11 "And Atlas Shrugged"

Todays pix at B-H FB per usual. Sorry I can't post em here, blogger.com and B-H site don't like each other anymore??

Phenomenal PACTour day. Lebowski didn't start the stage, needing a recovery day. The morning started inauspiciously. We had crashed at 930 last night (barely making it to 930.) Woke up to pee, pitch black, thought (great I've got 4-5 more hours to sleep!! _15_ min later the alarm went off. It was time to get up. Oh, well I guess that means I slept really, really well1!

With the strength of Atlas, Spartaca "shrugged" off yesterday and was full of piss and vinegar this am. Combo of things - 8 1/2 hours sleep, Lil Jon' massage, favorite food (pizza.) Plus prolly a good dose of she and I yesterday being passed by a rider at mile 15 who exclaimed "I can't believe I'm still only catching the slow guys!! How far up the road are the fast guys?!?!"

Spartaca force the pace and a selection of 4 of us, 2 more would later join, in the initial miles. 8 mile climb Cat 1 starting at mile 16 confirmed the selection. All of a sudden we were riding with the "fast guys" this am. It was so humid that a climber rode past us near the summit and commented on the trail of water like a leaking air conditioner he could follow (from yours truly, natch.) We got tailed off and "Bushed it" at a turn (daily Aussie lesson "bush" is jargon for getting lost or going off course. No problem, the road had just the right degree of rolling and we regained our escape group at the first sag.

After the first rest stop we had a stinging little Cat 2 climb then lots of rollers. Our group of 6 worked well together. Craig, who rode with Will and I on the Ridge of the Rockies last year. John, from Boise, who rides the "best bike" = Cannondale SuperSix. Klaus from Germany who lived in the same town I lived in as a child. Wayne, our crewmember, lunchtime cook from Cali who is a CHiP (Cali Hwy Patrolman.) The boys decided to go for hilltop sprints for somereason late in the stage. Craig was rewarded with a flat tyre at the top of one, so we had a little break there (Klaus comment was "that's more than 2-3 minutes, eh??"

Spartaca and I decided that the stage finished at lunch (which was at delicious as always, brats and Fresh Sweet Corn!!) After lunch was recovery pace, we caught Joe, our 70+ PACTourian. We didn't go super easy, and there was 3500 feet of climbing in those 40 miles, and damn if Joe never left us. Never even got in trouble (a little more cautious than us on the decents.)

Rainstorm caught us out with 5 miles to go, so we rolled into Starbucks a mile from the hotel. I did my #2 there (road rules, no #2 in the hotel room.) Probably first time ever #2 with helmet on. Got a little cold there, but made for a nice end of the day. When the heavy stuff stopped we cruised to the hotel where a previous PACTour rider had driven up from Philly with tons of Philly Soft Pretzels and shaved ice. Awesome recovery meal.

Tomorrow will be chill. 92 miles ride with 5400 feet climbing into Norwich, NY. Hell, what will we do in the afternoon???

Thanx for reading.