Day 15 - Sweet Alabama

Clay, Steve, Rob at the hotel in Eufaula, Alabama

 

What a nice day!  For the first time in well over a week we had a day with less than 160 miles.  The route today was fairly rolling, with 6,500' of climbing but we still made it in just after 4:00p, our earliest time ever. 
At the pre-ride talk, Lon suggested that it would be a good idea for larger groups (i.e. us) to break up for safety and less congestion on the highway.  Yesterday our large group passed a slower group, but they hung on to the back of our group making it difficult for passing vehicles to get by us. 
Right after the start, Will and I talked and Will, Tom and Jeremiah formed a group and went on ahead.  Steve, Clay, Brian and I made up a second group.  With the kind of terrain today (hilly rollers) smaller groups were much easier to work with and our group did a great job of moving along nicely.  Brian dropped back after a while due to some of the longer hills so the three of us carried on for the rest of the day, with a short stint with Steve Marshall. 
After lunch we stopped at the next rest stop and one of the other (formerly pretty fast) riders waved and went by, skipping the rest stop.  We didn't think too much of it until a few miles later we saw him off in the distance ahead of us.  We didn't say anything to each other, but the three of us all had the same idea - our pace quickened, we hit the hills a little harder and rotated through our pace line quickly.  Within a couple of miles we caught up to him and, of course had to blow by with a wave.  We kept up our vigorous pace to the next rest stop and were amazed at how well we were able to shake off 2,400 miles of riding and really push our pace.  We were able to keep up a decent pace all the way in from there, feeling pretty good, in a semi-intense, doesn't matter to anyone else kind of way.

Pace line thinking.  With our smaller pace line today (three riders for most of the day), we really had a good day and were able to keep the speed and level of effort the way we wanted it pretty well all day.  The larger group worked really well on the longer days, particularly when the wind was in our face. 

The sign of the day - thanks to Steve Marshal for sharing:

So, what happened to the old waitress and cook? 

Jacki, our lone woman rider recovered well enough from her bout with edema to ride today.  She completed the ride and was smiling at the finish so it was a good day:

Jacki at the finish

Our support crew has done a fabulous job looking after us across the country.  They are up before we are, feed us and take care of us during the day as we cycle along, then spend several hours in the evening cleaning up and preparing for the next day.  Here are two of our favorite crew members - thanks, ladies!

Tracey and Deb

Dave Jordan, another crew member, rode with us for a while today (and set a tough pace!).  Later on, Dave had other duties - i.e. cleaning the lunch truck.

 

 

Tomorrow is another shorter day (162 miles), with some good sized rollers in the first 70 miles then settling down to some smaller bumps as the day goes on, finishing in Dublin, Georgia, our last state.