Simon's TransAmerica cycle ride - 2012: Day 63

Start time: 07.07
Start location: Ennis
Start State: Montana
Start weather: warm
Total millage so far: 3,227.7

Finish time: 17.19
Finish location: Dillon
Finish State: Montana
Finish weather: Hot
Miles today: 72.48
Total millage so far: 3,300.18
Today's top speed: 46.2
Today's average speed: 13.8
Today’s ride time: 5hr 14min 13sec
Punctures - 3 (slow back wheel), (staple in back wheel), (major blowout)

Music played:

The Essential Mix - Alan Fitzpatrick - 12-11-11

The Essential Mix - Michael Woods - 10-12-11

The Essential Mix - Alixander 111 - 14-01-12

The Essential Mix - The 2 Bears - 21-01-12

Blog for the day:

“No, honestly, I really don’t give a f*ck who you are, where your from, where you started, where your headed and I certainly DO NOT want a business card with your effing blog URL. BYE!” It started off as a bit of a joke, but now this is how it has become with us. Go away!

Today was a mix bag of crap, very crap, crapy McCrap, and near death, which I guess could be classed as crap too. PS, It would be nice to be able to sit on our own seats after a long hellish ride too! So Montana, great scenery. Thanks. Drivers from hell. Things thrown at and hitting me, yobs shouting out the windows as they drive past. You can’t hear what they are saying, but I presume that this redneck mountain, in bread folk, have watched Bareback Mountain and are propositioning any man that see, as most of the women here are outdone by the wildlife – the roadkill variety. Then there were the ones giving the finger. Again, I presumed that they were letting the world know they are gay and want a BJ. Is that right? ;) lol. Then there are the roads, nice surface, but the shoulders, when there are any, are a crapy mixture of loose gravel and rumble strip. Back to the drivers, who like to buzz the cyclists. I thought I had given driving instructions on how to use the thing called a break when you approach a slower moving vehicle. I might as well give up on that as it is way too complicated. However, I have realised that there is another way to make other road users safer, and it donesn’t involve too much brain power! Woopie! Here we go! You know when you look ahead trough the window, your arms are stretched in front of you and your hands hold on to something. Now, this isn't the same as the bar you hold on to when on a roller coaster, this is a special thing. You can actually move it! YES!!!! It turns!! And what is more amazing is that when you turn it, the view from your window changes. It moves from right to left, or left to right, depending on which way you turn it. I know this is confusing, but do give it a try.

The scenery was great again even though we had a tough hill right out of camp, a long, dragging hill that went on for ever as the temperatures also climbed. I think it was a 10mile climb with a nice 7% 5mile descent. I wanted to try and break my speed record for the trip, but there was a headwind on the way down which kept me to a slow 46mph. I descended into Virginia City, around some nice corners wit step drop-offs on the right hand side. No more speed to get from peddling, I freewheeled my way down hunched over the front of my handlebars, arms tucked into my sides like my legs. Around the final corner and onto the straight picking up more speed, 46.2mph. BANG!!!!! F*CK ME! My bike shakes like never before, near on uncontrollably, the front wheel is all over the place, I pump the breaks and hold on for dear life. I slow pretty quickly, at least it seems it now. Panicking in case the shredded tire comes off my front wheel and leaves the bare rim to slide along the road, which would have ended badly, VERY badly. I checked the tire and there was a huge gash in the tire about 3inches or more long, and the inner tube was hanging out too. Very lucky. The questions is like the chicken & egg dilemma. Did the inner tube burst and caused the tube to go with it, or did the tire go and then the inner tube came out. To make matters worse, I had no credit on my phone, so I couldn’t call anyone. One bit of luck was that I was in front of some of the others and they made the call. But of course, the van with my spare tire in, (I carry two spare inner tubes with me on the bike), would take 3 or so hours to come back to town with the tire. We ate at a great little place in town, the others went on and Paul stayed, cheers! In the many hours to wait, I had a good look around town. Most amazing!! Lovely little place which sprang to life in the gold rush era. Must for a visit, do come. Lots of interesting facts and hangings too!

Anyway, wheel fixed, we set off again. The scenery later on was pretty bad, in that the gold rush had made a real mess of the river and there were just huge holes and tons of gravel and stones piled up everywhere. Not good. I stopped to help a tramp, offered him some water, which he said he didn’t need. He was off to Boston and after a guardian angel saved me earlier, I felt like doing a good deed myself. Hmm after twin rivers or something like that, the road was bad. We had a huge headwind, hot temperatures, warm water and 20-30miles to go. Not nice. Lots more nice scenery on that road and long hard slog into Dillon. The end!