Day 12: Nevada, With Less Mountains

Course: Baker, NV to Delta, UT

Distance: 100 miles

Terrain: Sustaining hills, bumpy roads.

Conditions: Headwind

I awoke knowing that this day was probably going to be difficult on account of how terrible the conditions were the day before. We took off and headed up a 2.5 mile hill and then went right back down it, in order to make the day a century ride. I’m still wondering why people voted for that. Afterwards, we met at the Utah/Nevada state border to take pictures. We then took off for Delta. At that point, we all pretty much hated Nevada and were ready to leave. However, we had no idea that Utah would be pretty much the exact same.

It started off with optimism, and then it slowly faded to annoyance. We had been riding for about 50 miles when we finally saw a black paved road. My pace line cheered, but when we hit the black top, it was even bumpier than the last road. I like massages, but not ones that hurt for a really long time. The deceptive black top road was off and on until the end of the ride.

At about mile 60 we were all starving and pretty tired of Clif bars to hold us over. You can only eat so many before they’re synonymous with dog food. We pulled up to a crew stop, and a crewmember told us that the next stop would be lunch. We found some hidden energy and booked it to the next stop, only to find a single van with nothing to eat but more Clif bars. They told us that lunch was actually the next stop. We had spent the last of our hopes on that crew stop, so making it to lunch was pretty difficult. However, once we made it there and got food in our stomachs, the rest of the ride panned out OK. Arriving in Delta, I wanted to get off of the bike more than ever before.

The rest of the day was pretty casual. We all went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and enjoyed some bonding time.

Day 11: Something About Soda

Course: Ely, NV to Baker, NV

Distance: 60 miles

Max Speed: 48.5 mph

Conditions: Cross winds

Baker population: 68

Today was meant to be an easy day, but unfortunately it was anything but that. We began the ride by climbing about 400 feet, then dropping over 1000. Everyone was thinking, “Man I love this ride!” However, by the end, everyone despised the ride.

I rode with Reggie and Kyle Marpe, two guys that I haven’t ridden with yet. We made some fun out of the ride despite its challenges. For reasons unknown, we named our pace line the Beavers. Every time we hit a hill we’d be yelling, “Let’s go beavers,” or “Show ‘em how it’s done, beavers,” just for inspiration.

For some reason Mother Nature likes to make the last 10 miles of every ride next to impossible. Right when we were about 7 miles out, the cross winds kicked in like crazy. I swear that for the last miles of the ride I was riding at a 45 degree angle to the ground with a death grip in order to not fall over. Once, the wind pushed me into the lane for oncoming traffic and off of the other side of the road. Luckily, no cars were coming. I don’t weigh enough to counter the winds and my bike has a carbon frame, so it’s even lighter. Not a good combo for cross winds.

After arrival we went to a local cave and were given a tour. Before the tour, our tour guide was explaining how the caves form and why they’re considered to be alive. She threw out a lot of geological terms and metaphors. She said something about how the caves are like a can of soda. It was pretty confusing. When she finished explaining and headed into the cave, we all looked around and someone announced that all they heard was “Science, science, science, something about soda.”

The dinner was sponsored by the city of Baker, which is actually plausible since there are so few people. They cooked my favorite meal of the trip so far. The menu included funeral potatoes, turkey, pickled artichoke, salad, bread and apple butter, corn casserole, hot fudge cake, apple pie, ice cream, and more. It’s amazing to see just how much people do for us when all we do is ride through their town and ask for a place to stay.

Tomorrow, we head for Delta, Utah. It’s supposed to be a 95-mile ride, but guys felt adventurous and majority voted to go ahead and make it a century ride. I was not a part of the pro vote. 

Day 10: Eely, Not Ellie

Course: Eureka, NV to Ely, NV
Distance: 80 miles
Top speed: 35 mph
Total Climbing Distance: 4,720 ft
Highest Elevation: 7,563 ft


Upon wakeup we were promptly informed that the pronunciation of the city we were going to was pronounced like eel-ee, not ell-ee. Also, we were told that if we mispronounced it in the town that people would be offended. After a quick pronunciation practice round, we took off for an 80 mile ride.
I rode with Travis and Saurabh. Travis is one of the three guys on our route from Georgia Tech that are on the cycling team there. He's an excellent cyclist and very considerate on the bike. We took off as the second pace line and had a pretty big downhill almost right away. Finally, we were starting off the day how we wanted. It was too good to be true, and of course it ended up being awfully short-lived.

As soon as we were done with the downhill we hit rolling hills and the headwind kicked in. Yesterday's headwind was pretty rough, but today's was twofold. We decided to go with two minute rotations for pulling on the bike. It worked out well for the most part until the wind just kept increasing in speed. No matter which way we turned, it was shooting at us like craziness. It came in front of us, to the right of us, to the left of us, but never behind us. It made for a great ride, if you're trying to see how many choice words you can yell at mother nature.

We eventually finished the ride panting like dogs. When we were done, everyone that had finished headed to McDonald's. I ate a double cheeseburger, large fries, and a chicken sandwich. For dinner, we ate tacos that had been brought in by the student council of the local high school. I ate four. Again, I amaze myself at how much I eat. Tomorrow is only a 60 mile ride. "Only"...hah.

Hopefully I can get to bed early tonight. The easy days always seem to be harder.

Day 9: Powering Through

Course: Austin, NV to Eureka, NV

Mileage: 70

Conditions: Windy and hot

Average speed: 15.6 mph

Scenery: The same. Again.

We woke up knowing that today would be just another day in the desert. I rode with Jeff and Derek. We headed out as the second pace line, and immediately hit a steep hill. After the hill we had a fun downhill that we hit about 33mph on, but that was to be short lived. The downhill came to an end and we hit rolling hills and headwind kicked in. Long story short, that was the entire ride. Jeff pulled us pretty well and considering the wind we were able to average a decent pace. We were tempted to waste a lot of time at crew stops since we felt lazy, but we moved quickly. For the last ten miles of the ride we hit hills and the heat kicked in. We made it to town and just like yesterday, the town seemed to be at the top of the world. The combination of the two hills just left us exhausted and bitter.  Luckily, after a shower, we had a 4 hour break to nap.

The town was pretty cool. It seemed like something out of an old western movie. There were saloons and bars and a general store and more that all looked pretty western. Notice how I made saloons and bars plural.

We had dinner with the Lion’s Club of Eureka. They’ve been sponsoring meals at the house we went to for over 20 years. They gave us a ton of spaghetti and cake, so I gorged on a few plates of spaghetti and a couple pieces of cake. It never ceases to amaze me how much I eat since I started the ride. I wouldn’t have finished one plate of spaghetti prior to riding, but now I can finish three. In my last blog I said that we headed to Ely today, but we actually went to Eureka. Tomorrow we head for Ely.

Day 8: Beyond Lonely

Course: Fallon to Austin, NV
Austin Population: 168
Total Climbing Distance: 4,000ft.
Temperature: 90 degrees
Max Speed: 40mph
Distance: 113 miles

We woke up early to beat the heat. I rode with Jeff and David - two guys that I hadn't ridden with before but I knew that they were strong riders so we could get the job done quickly. We took to 50 highway, or what is known as the Loneliest Road in America - rightfully so. Let me put the scenery into perspective. Sand, and a never ending road. For a while on the ride we were going pretty quickly. A tailwind and some downhill kept us either at a steady 18mph pace line, or a quick 35+mph burst. Around mile 20, we started noticing that people had spelled out names and such on the side of the road in the desert using red rocks. We pulled up to all of our crew vans to find that as a small tradition we were to spell out JOH '13 and leave it there. To either side of our new rock formation we could see JOH '12, JOH '11, and JOH '10. It was really cool to make our mark as a team.

My pace line ended up passing just about everyone except a group of seriously strong riders, and didn't even feel hot until around mile 80. At that point, our butts were pretty sore and had tight legs more than we were fatigued. The head only set the pain in stone. It got hot - fast. The last 30 miles was nothing but steady uphill and heat. I ended up running on lukewarm water and tired legs. Not a good combo for any cyclist. The last 5 miles had a super steep hill that made it very hard to finish. We came to find out that the handbook for crew members had instructed us to walk our bikes up the last hill, but of course no one told us that.

After the ride we went to a local park to shower and have dinner. A group of women known as the Austin Ladies had prepared us a Thanksgiving-style feast. I ate enough food for two days it seemed. It was probably one of the best meals I've ever had. But of course, coming off of a 113 mile ride through the desert, dog food would probably be one of the best meals I've ever had.

Just after dinner we noticed that the sun was setting behind the mountains. About 7 of us decided to hike up a huge hill to watch the sunset from the top of it. When we finally made it to the top out of breath, it was one of the most amazing views I've ever seen. We could see the entire city of Austin. However, that's not very cool since it has 168 people living there. Unless you like a view of a lot of small houses, a church, and a gas station. But on the other side, we watched the sunset together. It was a great way to finish off the day.

Today was tough work, but it paid off well. Tomorrow we head for Ely.

Day 7: That Was 60 Miles?

Course: Carson City to Fallon, NV

We woke up at 4:30 and rode to breakfast with the Kiwanis Club of Carson City, NV. We met them at the children's museum that we had been at the day before and they cooked us pancakes and sausage. It was frigid out, but we knew that that was about to pull a 180 on us as soon as we hit our first day in the desert.

I rode with Alex again, along with my friend Beau. As soon as we hit the flatlands of the desert, Alex began to pull us and we kept a tight pace line, so we were booking it. Along the way we even saw wild horses. We finished all 60 miles in about 3 hours since we had a slight tailwind and kept an average speed of 18.6 mph. We did about 1000 ft of climbing just from very slight hills. Our pace line was the first to finish, so we had to wait a while for everyone else to shuffle in to lodging as we waited outside in the heat.

After a short nap, we went to a convention center to have a dance and sing karaoke with the Humble Shredders. The Humble Shredders are a local organization that gives jobs to adults with disabilities in order to help them to have a chance to get an actual job. Most of the jobs that they offer are shredding documents, hence their name.

While there I met a man named Bruce. Bruce had Down syndrome and didn't like to talk much, but I managed to drag him to the dance floor. As soon as we hit the dance floor, he broke out of his shell and rocked out the air guitar.

It was a great day. No cool pictures since it was just the desert,

Day 6: So This Is What Lance Armstrong Feels Like..

Course: Lake Tahoe, CA to Carson City, NV.
Mileage: 30 miles
Largest decent: 9 miles long, about 3500 ft.
Max speed: 40mph
Views: Incredible.


Yesterday we had the day off, so we woke up around 8 (weird to say I'd ever call that sleeping in) and went stand up paddle boarding. It's like standing on a thick surfboard with a paddle to move yourself. When we arrived at the rental place, we asked the manager how the water was, and he proceeded to tell us that it was a "warm" 64 degrees. I guess he thought we like to swim in ice. The objective of stand up paddle boarding, or SUP, quickly became not falling in. However, it was a lot harder than we anticipated since there were waves. One by one we all fell in. I did pretty well until a wave hit the broad side of my paddle board and I lost control. I plopped into the water and was back on the board in like .75 seconds due to the temperature of the water. I then resorted to kneel down paddle boarding for more stability. The day went well, and I got a few needed parts for my bike. I volunteered to be in the puppet show that we would put on for the boys and girls club that we visited today, so I practiced with some other guys at night and we had some great laughs.

Today, we woke up refreshed knowing that we only had 30 miles to go. I rode with Saurabh and Alex. Alex is on the Georgia Tech cycling team and works at a bike shop, so he's pretty much a pro. He's extremely considerate on the bikes and gives a lot of tips while riding. He pulled a lot of the distance so we went extra fast when we drafted off of him. We had about 800 feet of climbing to do before the big downhill. Once we hit the downhill, we soared. Alex pulled us and we were hitting speeds close to the speed limit. Fun, but terrifying. Eventually, the views got so amazing that I was literally laughing out loud because they were so breathtaking. When we finally reached the bottom, we had passed all but one pace line. For one reason or another, my pace line and I were feeling great, so we took turns keeping a steady but fast pace, and eventually passed the next pace line to become the first pace line. We finished the ride first, and it was a mix of feeling like a champion and being weirded out by the fact that I wasn't right in front of the sweeps for once.

After the ride, we staged up and rode with police escorts to the Boys and Girls Club to meet with the kids and put on our puppet show. The kids at the Boys and Girls Club do not have disabilities, so the puppet show was centered on teaching them about people with disabilities. The three other guys and I had only practiced once, so it was all new to us. We put on quite a show though. We made so many minor mistakes that we were dying of laughter behind the screen because of things like the main character making subtle changes to his accent. Going from Bronx guy, to Bostonian, to gangster, all in the span of about 5 minutes.

After the Boys and Girls Club, we staged up again and went to a local children's museum to put on another performance. There were only about 10 kids in the audience, as opposed to the 100 from the Boys and Girls Club. This time, though, it was my turn to voice the puppet. I had to imitate a girl's voice, and tried at first to say hello, but it just ended up sounding like a 50-year-old smoking addict, so I reverted to a girly-ish man voice. The play went well and we got a lot of participation in asking questions form the kids. It was cool to see them actually interested and talking to the puppets.

We had diner at a home of a member of the Carson City Rotary Club. They had so much food it was insane. I ate 4 slices of steak, a chicken breast, three brownies, an ice cream cone, one heap of fruit, a heap of pasta, a hand full of chips, and a heap of tortellini. I was challenged by my brother to eat as much as he did his year, but I don't think I made the cut.

Overall it was a great day. Tomorrow we head to Fallon via the Loneliest Road in America. 50+ miles of straightaway desert.