Day 12 Mena, AR to Batesville, MS

This morning was tough because I was afraid I might have to quit the ride. Overnight the Achilles tendon really began to hurt and this morning I looked ridiculous hobbling around. I could barely walk.

Pac Tour owner, Lon Haldeman, can fix anything. Before today's ride he taped up my ankle so that the tendon would not receive any pressure while pedaling. So today I focused on recovery. I sat in a very steady paceline and took it easy.

Today we rode the flattest terrain of the tour. The fields on each side of the river were very green. Soybeans looked good close to the river but no so good 30 miles east. The fields were wet but the plants didn't look so great.

I keep looking for a Case International tractor, but this is Deere country...Sorry Don G. Anyway enough about agriculture.

So I'm doing pretty well. The ride today convinced me that it will be possible to ride through this tendon thing. This evening Lon drilled out my shows and moved the cleats back about an inch. So I have been given some tools to deal with this problem.

I really appreciate all the help I have received. Pac Tour riders and staff have been great. The RAAM Qualifier dream continues.

Thanks again for checking the blog.

Day 11 Mena, AR to Pine Bluff, AR

Day 11 is complete and my RAAM qualifier status remains alive for another day.

Statistically today was an easy day. The trees sheltered us from the winds. The sky was overcast so we didn't get the full blast from the sun. The climbing was mostly rollers. No long sustained grinds. And the distance was only 175 miles.

For George however it was not an easy day. I feel great about getting on the bike and working but I am struggling with 2 out of three points of contact between my body and the bike. Numbness in my hands makes me clumsy (I'm dropping everything) and now my Achilles tendon in my right leg is causing all sorts of problems.

I'm not taking as many pictures right now because I'm afraid I will drop the camera. There were some great photo ops today... Anyway by the end of the day I figured out away to hold my camera and use my thumb to snap the picture. We will see how well that works tomorrow.

The cool thing about this trip is how hard we are rooting for each other to succeed. I was humbled today repeatedly by the number of acts of kindness that I received. It really made me think, am I this aware of other people's needs? I guess I better start working on this one right away.

Thanks also to those of you who send emails or leave comments on the blog it is appreciated.

I said good by to Tom Rosenbaurer this morning. Tom had ridden every inch of the tour until the 206 mile day 9 when he didn't make the time cut at the last sag stop (mile 188) He rode one more day but his heart was not in it. Work needs and a desire to be with his family became much more intense once the dream was gone.

This bike ride would be very hard to continue for me if I don't complete one of the days, so I can understand Tom's decision (especially since he has already crossed the country twice on a bike) Good luck Tom and I will see you on a Brevet ride this fall.

Also I would like to hear an update on Brad Haslam. I think about him and how he is doing after the accident. Please email me at george@rittenhousebuilders.com

*****for a video of the rain we road through on day 9 check out Vernon Smith's elite tour blog. It was impressive!

Day 10 Ada, OK to Mena, AR

Day 10

We are safe and sound after a challenging day. We rode a 120 mile warm up and then finished off with a 54 mile climbing fest on the Talemina parkway. Total mileage 174 miles.

The humidity was close to 100% all day with temps in the 90s. We were cooled off by an awesome thunderstorm that lasted about an hour. I was never on top of a mountian for a thunderstorm, what a rush! The temps dropped from 91 degrees to 63 degrees in about 15 minutes. Some of the riders reported hail but I think it was just a really hard rain. I experienced a severe loss of breaking power on the 15% descents but otherwise it was okay.

New sensation today. I have a numbness in my hands from riding bike all day. This morning I lost the ability to upshift my gears because I didn't have the strength in my fingers. I dropped out of the group and rode by myself in the aerobars for a while so that I didn't have to work the brakes. Other than that I am holding up pretty well.

Day 10 and the RAAM qualifier dream is alive.

No Internet at the hotel this evening. This blog brought to you by mcdonalds.

Day 9 Sayre, OK to Ada, OK

Day 9

I told my wife and friends that if I make it through the desert heat I can complete this tour without taking a ride in the sag wagon. I am an idiot!

A few posts ago I used the word cruel to describe cycling. Today was cruel.

Brad Haslam crashed out very close to the halfway point today. Brad met every time cut and his RAAM qualifer status was good. Through no fault of his own he ran over a rider who had crashed in front of him. Brad fractured his knee cap so he is out of the ride. All that time and effort...poof! We will miss you.

I was on riding on empty today at 40 miles, too bad because I still had 166 miles to go. Phil Ligget talks about cyclists reaching into their suit case of courage when they are having a tough day. All I had was a little hand purse of courage and it only had a few candy wrappers in it.

Better than courage I have friends here and I am embarrased at how many times Ed P. pulled me back up to the group, or that Dan F. sat up and waited, or Jeff L. looked over his shoulder and paused. However I'm looking on the bright side and the average age of these three guys is 57, so maybe I will get better when I grow up.

Tough day but after 206 miles today the RAAM qualifer status is still good.

See you tommorrow at the end of 11,000 feet of climbing!

Day 8 Hereford, TX to Sayre, OK

Day 8 was a pretty stinkin flat 180 mile ride.

Breakfast was seriously quiet this morning. I think I could hear people actually chewing their food. Within a few minutes of finishing breakfast we rode as a group directly into a fantastic sunrise. This morning's opening ride was much better than some of the other early morning beginnings. We are riding better as a group and we have a real sense of camaraderie now. We are the Elite Pac Tour darn it, and today we will ride 180 miles like it is nothing.

Well that's at least how it started...

We did ride as a group into our first rest stop at 35 miles. After the rest stop (6 minutes tops) we were back in the saddle and going hard. We had a few miles of paceline riding and then the wind shifted. From there we stretched wide across the road in an echelon to find shelter from the cross wind. (Some of the other bloggers have explained this already. Check their sites out for an explanation. Too many words for me to write.)

Anyway, the going got hard at this point and for the next 20 miles or so I thought it sure would be fun to just sit up and take it easy. The thing that saved me from leaving the group was that we were on some pretty bad frontage roads along the interstate. They were a mish mash of broken concrete and black top that had long since lost the black and some of the top. It is a lot more fun to fly over these roads fast in a group than to go slow by yourself.

Oh yeah and there is Lon's message board at the end of the day. It sure was fun to be on the board Saturday, wouldn't it be cool to be on there two days in a row?

What a great group of guys to ride with. We didn't talk as much as yesterday but we didn't have to. It was fun to just hang in there with the guys and go real fast. At the end of the day I checked my cycling computer and we had gone 180 miles at an average speed just shy of 22 miles per hour on the bike. What a rush.

Unfortunately I didn't take as many pictures today. My theory on taking pictures is to just shoot massive quantities and some will turn out okay. I was hanging by a thread most of today so I took less than half as many as usual. Plus I was living off of "Cliff Shots" and I got gel everywhere in my jersey pockets. So tonight I'm washing the camera in the bathroom sink. Hopefully the camera will still work to take pictures tomorrow.

Tomorrow is another flat day but our longest mileage day at 206 miles. My plan is to rest as much as possible in preparation for a nasty day of climbing on Tuesday.

See you then...

Day 7 Roswell, NM to Hereford, TX

164 miles today and the RAAM qualifier dream is alive.

Today is the seventh day of our tour and the effects of six hard days of riding were showing this morning. Cyclist's moved a bit slower and were a little quieter at breakfast.

Once we left the hotel parking lot the the order of the day was pretty much Git-R-Done. The scenery was less than breathtaking and on the flattest day of the tour the only thing to do was to get as many miles in as possible before the cross winds picked up.

Since the ride today was pancake flat and would most likely be windy I thought that this might be a chance for me to ride with some of the better riders and take some of their pictures.

• A bit of explanation for the non cyclist readers. Cycling is cruel, not a little bit mean but downright cruel. Heavy people like me work like a dog to get up hills that skinny little guys ascend without even noticing. This is called power to weight ratio, literally your weight divided by the amount of watts you can create. The skinny guy beats the fat guy every time. However there is a silver lining for guys like me. We get really strong trying to follow the skinny guys up the hills and our larger bodies do make more power. Take away the hill add some wind and the big guy has an advantage over the climber.

So today I rode at the front with the strong guys. Mark Pattinson is also doing this ride and for the last week I haven't seen him only his name on message board at the end of the day, because he is often listed as the first rider to complete the days ride. Turns out that he does exist and that he is an accomplished ultra endurance racer.

Also riding at the front today where Brad Reid and Charlie Combs, both of these men had a rough beginning to this tour and battled through some real misery in the desert. They are recovering very well and rode very strong today. The four of us rode from the lunch break to the finish together, stopping/slowing only to allow Mark to repair three flat tires. One characteristic I have noticed in really good riders is that they don't let stuff bug them. Mark didn't miss a beat. One flat "it happens", 2nd flat, a shrug, 3rd flat "today is my day" If that happens to me I'm thinking forget this ride and it is time to buy a new bike.

We finished together and had another safe day on the bike.

Thanks for checking the blog and sending the emails and comments.