5/14 Roll on Columbia: Coulee to Republic

The weather forecast is not good today; 50% chance of rain where we're starting and 70% chance of rain where we're going. But you learn to take weather forecasts with skepticism - we had sun almost the entire day. The only rain we encountered was a 10 minute shower.

Jim has already told us we won't see a traffic light for several days. This also means no Starbucks! But wait - at the only store on today's 70 mile ride we find cans of Starbucks double shot espresso! This contains 38 grams of carbohydrates. So one can and a banana will get you many miles down the road.

Today's ride is fairly difficult, beginning almost immediately with a 7 mile climb. Most of the riders accept a jump start in the van to the top of the hill. For the first 35 miles, I ride with Craig and Jim (photo to left). Coach Jim wants me to ride and additional 20 miles. 10 of which are up hill. Craig doesn't join us for these extra miles, so it just me and the coach (photo on right). I agree to ride up this extra hill for one hour; then I'm turning around. It's on the way down that we get the rain.

The 35 miles after the detour are great - a slightly rolling, twisting road along a creek in a fairly wooded area. I'm on Jim's wheel until the last .25 miles up a 7% grade into town' my legs can't do the climb at his pace. A great day - very few cars - would be even better if I didn't have saddle sores. I rode 85 miles and climbed 5,200 feet. This is fairly close to the very tough days cross-country so I'm gaining confidence, little by little.