Daily Summary

The Ride

Today’s ride was awesome. The weather started slightly chilly around 50. It warmed up to where I took my jacket off by the first rest stop at around 9:00. It was sunny all day, finished in the mid-70s, and we had a minor tailwind the whole way, which helped.

The pavement was perfect again. Along with the tailwind, we made amazing time for a while. I rode by myself for the middle 40 miles and was averaging over 18 miles per hour with stretches at 20+. All without really pushing at all. I won’t replicate those numbers at that effort level without a similar good set up. Everyone had similarly good time and so we finished substantially earlier than we planned.

Then, the final 15 miles were on worse roads and then a few miles of gravel. We slowed a ton. I had averaged 17.8 mph overall up until close to 70 miles in. The last few miles were at around 7 mph on the heavy gravel. So, you can see in the metrics that it dropped the overall average down almost 2 mph. But, that’s how it works!

The Sights

Oddly, there is a Stonehenge replica just up the hill from where we stayed. You can see it in the first picture and the 2nd picture has information. 

The next picture has an early view of the river. Then, you can see the high cliffs that were across the river and above us for the first few hours. The cliffs slowly shrank until by the end of the day you can see it was mostly flat.

I got a picture of Mount Hood in the distance you can see as well. We passed a lot of wineries and cherry orchards, but I didn’t take pictures because it was pretty much vines or trees! There were a ton of rockslides. As these cliffs erode, a lot of the rocks roll down. At times you can see huge chunks of the cliffs missing. I forgot to get a picture of one of the big slides. 

A couple trains passed by us, and the tracks were only 20 yards or so off the road. I got two of the trains to blow their horns for me by doing the same pumping motion you do for trucks. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but it did!

A New Cool Down Routine

All but one hotel so far has had a pool and hot tub. Today, after stretching in the hot tub, I swam laps for about 15 minutes to loosen things up. After a few minutes, I could feel a difference. I think I’ll do the swimming thing every time I can.

My leg got pretty sore around mile 70 and stayed that way until around mile 80. I slowed down and worked on stretching it a bit and it loosened up. Once again tonight it is sore, but no worse. Given I’ve ridden over 300 miles the last 4 days, including a decent number of hills, I’ll take it.

Saddle Sores / Chafing 

By not being able to do all my prep training, one thing I knew would be an issue is that I hadn’t built up my skin to be used to sitting on the bike so long. We’re all using anti-chafing cream, and I’ve learned I need to reapply it multiple times given our itinerary. So, I am avoiding chafing issues luckily.

What’s getting me is that my sit bones and the skin over them aren’t used to the pressure yet. Everything that holds my weight on the seat is really sore. Not unexpected and I just have to push through until my skin and bones adapt.

If you want some inside scoop on anti-chafing cream protocols, read on, but be prepared to be grossed out a bit. My wife asked me, “So are you guys just sitting on the side of the road with your hands down your pants rubbing cream around your crotch?”. My answer was “Yes!”.

I can’t imagine what someone driving by would think seeing a bunch of older guys wearing funny looking shorts standing there with their hands down their pants and rubbing themselves. But, that’s what it takes to keep from developing what can turn into a real problem.

I warned you it was a bit gross, so you can’t blame me if you got this far and wish you hadn’t!

The Food

A pretty basic day. Breakfast was from a non-chain convenience store with a food counter. Expectations are pretty low in that scenario, but the really nice ladies working at 6:00 am made me an awesome omelet bowl. I had enough to be ready to go.

Lunch was our usual sandwiches, fruit, etc.

Dinner was catered at the hotel. Lasagna, salad with chicken, veggies, and cheesecake. After dinner, we went to the Dairy Queen next door, and I got a banana split to finish the day.